Mum sold clothes of daughters she killed for £15 a bag
Social workers blasted as she’s jailed for life
A MOTHER who murdered her two daughters offered their clothes for sale on Facebook a few months later. Sex-obsessed Louise Porton, 23, was jailed for life yesterday for smothering Lexi Draper, three, and 16-monthold Scarlett Vaughan because they ‘got in the way’ of her sordid lifestyle.
Lexi was killed in January last year and Scarlett two weeks later, but yesterday it emerged that in June Porton posted a photo on a Facebook sale page of two bin bags stuffed with children’s clothes.
The post said the items were grouped into sizes from 0-3 months upwards. Porton offered them for £20 a bag but later dropped the price to £15, saying she would deliver them. It is not known if anyone bought them.
A serious case review is under way to examine whether anything could have been done to prevent the deaths.
In a victim impact statement read at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Chris Draper, 25, condemned social workers for failing to heed his warnings over Porton.
He said: ‘I hate Louise. No punishment will be enough. I will never get my daughters back. Maybe if social services had listened to me, they would still be alive today.
‘I never met Scarlett and that pain will live with me forever.’
‘So many lives devastated’
Porton, who moved from Walsall, West Midlands, to Rugby, Warwickshire, in order to deny Mr Draper access to his daughters, sat with her head in her hands for most of the 90-minute hearing a day after she was convicted of two counts of murder.
Her trial heard the part-time model peddled X-rated pictures of herself to men she met online, sometimes offering sex for cash. The court heard she ‘would do whatever she could’ not to have her daughters around while she enjoyed a party lifestyle.
Sentencing her yesterday, Mrs Justice Yip said the ‘evil’ mother made a ‘calculated decision’ to end her daughters’ lives.
She told Porton, who was ordered to serve at least 32 years behind bars: ‘One way or another you squeezed the life out of each of your daughters, only calling emergency services when you knew they were dead.
‘I’m sure that at the time of their deaths you intended to kill each of your daughters. Why you did so, only you know.
‘Those who loved Lexi and Scarlett have been left bewildered as to how and why you could have done something so evil. Your actions have devastated so many lives.’
Last night it emerged that Porton had tricked boyfriend Jason Vaughan, 32 – who she started a relationship with after Mr Draper – into believing Scarlett was his child.
A relative of the murderer said: ‘She told him he was Scarlett’s father but she was lying. That’s the sort of person she is. I grew up with her and she was vile.’
Lexi was found dead on January 15 last year at Porton’s flat in Rugby. Her mother, who had ‘deliberately obstructed’ her airway, had made two previous attempts on her life.
Scarlett died on February 1 and was found with neck compression injuries as well as signs of suffocation.
Walsall Council said it would be inappropriate to comment until a serious case review was completed.