Ten years for mum who killed twins to make ex suffer
A SPITEFUL mother who drowned her twin toddlers to make her estranged husband suffer was jailed for ten years yesterday.
Samantha Ford, 38, killed 23month-old Jake and Chloe in the bath at their home on Boxing Day last year to ruin the life of her husband Steven.
After she was arrested, she was desperate to know if Mr Ford was distressed at the killings of their IVF children. The Old Bailey heard that she drowned the twins in the bath, then placed them in their beds fully-dressed.
A note on the table said: ‘Please forgive my crazy mind.’ Ford then drove to notorious suicide spot Beachy Head in Sussex.
She was later found slumped in her car after driving into the back of a lorry with no seatbelt on. She told police ‘Just let me die. I killed my babies. I have had a breakdown. I would never hurt them – they are my miracle babies.’
The court was told Ford, of Charing, Kent, and her husband split up after she blamed him for the loss of their lavish expat lifestyle in Qatar. The pair had met in 2004 and moved to Qatar in 2008. They spent most of their ten-year marriage there. The relationship began to fall apart following their return to the UK last year and they eventually split in november.
Prosecutor Tom Kark QC said there was evidence Ford was ‘a materialistic person’ who ‘resented losing her good lifestyle in Qatar’.
She complained to Mr Ford that they were ‘destined to be a miserable family living in a s***hole’. In the days leading up to Boxing Day Ford searched online for ‘drowning children’ and ‘overdosing’.
Mr Ford said in a victim impact statement: ‘This was the most heinous, spiteful act ... Knowing how much I loved the children, she knew it would be the ultimate punishment for not going back to her.’
Last night Mr Ford hit out at the jail sentence on Twitter, saying: ‘Time for Boris Johnson to step up and get a handle on tougher sentencing! Ten years for killing my son and daughter and probably only serve five! Justice not served today. I am devastated, disgusted and appalled!’
Psychiatrist Dr Muzaffar Hussain told the court Ford was ‘narcissistic’ and wanted ‘to appear more severely ill than she is’. Another psychiatrist, Dr Philip Joseph, said: ‘She was quite fixated about Steven Ford while in hospital wanting to know he was suffering as well.’
Ford, who admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility, will be held in a psychiatric unit until she is deemed fit for prison.