Teens told, ‘I can take your life away’
BY AMY MURPHY reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk
A MUM jailed for murdering two of her sons regularly told them: “I gave you life, I can take it away,” a court has heard.
Sarah Barrass, 35, and the boys’ dad Brandon Machin, 39 – who is her half-brother – were both sent to prison yesterday for at least 35 years, for strangling Tristan, 13, and Blake Barrass, 14, in Sheffield on May 24.
The pair had admitted conspiracy to murder six of Barrass’s children, including Tristan and Blake, and five counts of attempted murder.
She and Machin were sentenced for those offences, as well as the murders of Tristan and Blake, at Sheffield Crown Court.
Prosecutor Kama Melly QC said: “Visitors to Miss Barrass’s house would hear her tell the boys, ‘I gave you life, I can take it away’.”
The lawyer added that the couple were scared the boys would be taken into care, “combined with their fear of the authorities becoming aware of their unnatural relationship”.
They conspired to murder the six children between May 14 and May 20.
The attempted murders of Tristan, Blake and two other children took place on May 23.
Barrass and Machin then tried to kill one of these children again a day later.
The court heard that the accused pair gave tablets to the four eldest children. Melly said: “The defendants expected the tablets to kill the children overnight.”
The court was told Barrass sent messages and wrote social media posts overnight, claiming that they were suffering from a sickness bug.
But when she realised the tablets had not killed them, she began to search on the internet for other methods to murder her children, including suffocating, strangulation and drowning.
All the surviving children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are under the age of 13.