Mother who killed her girl admits: I suffocated son too
A MOTHER already in jail for killing her daughter was yesterday handed a life sentence for murdering her baby son six months earlier.
Lesley Dunford admitted to prison officers that she suffocated seven-month-old Harley by pressing his head into the mattress in his cot.
She told them ‘I killed the baby’ – and described the ‘blood coming out of his mouth and nose’.
The 37-year-old’s confession came two years into her seven-year prison sentence for killing her daughter Lucy. She was found guilty of the three-year-old’s manslaughter in June 2012.
At the latest hearing, prosecutor Philippa McAtasney told the Old Bailey: ‘No new evidence had come to light when the defendant began making admissions [about] killing her son at Drake Hall Prison in Staffordshire. She said “I did it, I killed the baby” – she said she was sure, she was having nightmares and flashbacks.’
Following Harley’s death on August 27, 2003, a post-mortem examination found that he had died from pneumonia. But Dunford told a support worker: ‘They told me he died from a respiratory problem, but he didn’t. I killed him. He had blood coming out of his mouth and nose.’
She described bumping his head accidentally against a headboard as she laid him down for a nap, which made him cry. She then pressed his head into the mattress to suffocate him.
When asked if she was sure, as she had a history of retracting confessions, Dunford said: ‘I don’t want to take it back, I just want to be punished.’ She said that she was racked with guilt.
The prosecution added: ‘She also made admissions about Lucy, saying she hit her head against the headboard and then suffocated her and that she was struggling.’
‘She said “I think I did, I was bad”. She indicated that others had told her she could have postnatal depression – [but] there’s no evidence to support this.’
Dunford’s daughter died on February 2, 2004, at their home in Camber, East Sussex. The inquest was then delayed until 2009 because of court proceedings relating to Dunford’s other children with her husband Wayne. After a review of the medical evidence, Lucy was found to have died from asphyxiation, the court heard.
Mrs McAtasney said: ‘The prosecution say the admissions are unprompted and detailed. The staff at the prison were not seeking any disclosure in response to Harley, he was not the subject of her victim awareness booklet.’
Despite signing a confession, Dunford continued to change her mind – first pleading guilty to murdering her son in January, before vacating the plea in February. She admitted murder again last month.
Alan Kent, for Dunford, said that at the time of the killings his client had been a woman in her early 20s with three young children. He added that she had very low intelligence – bordering on learning difficulties – and the only reason the case came to court was because Dunford volunteered a confession.
Jailing the mother of three for life with a minimum term of 13 years, Mr Justice Baker said: ‘The aggravating factors are that Harley was just seven months old, he was particularly vulnerable and you – as his mother – were in a position of trust.’
‘The mitigating factors that decrease the criminality are that it’s clear there are significant [elements] relating to your mental health – you are of significantly low intelligence, and you had a low repertoire of ways of coping.
‘However, I note that in terms of mental health there is no significant psychiatric history prior to the death of your children.’
Dunford did not react as she was led to the cells, watched by her husband in the public gallery.
‘I just want to be punished’