Incestuous couple jailed for murdering sons
AN INCESTUOUS couple from Sheffield who murdered two of their teenage sons and plotted to kill four more will serve a minimum of 35 years behind bars.
Sarah Barrass, 35, and her halfbrother, 39-year-old Brandon Machin – who is father to all six of her children – plotted together to kill the youngsters in May amid fears they would be taken into care.
They worked together to strangle their two eldest children, Tristan, 13, and Blake Barrass, 14, before placing bin bags over their heads.
A court heard yesterday that two of the children they had plotted to murder were under the age of three. Prosecutors said the surviving youngsters wanted their parents to go to prison for “300 years” and one feared they might “become a murderer” as a result of the crimes.
Sheffield Crown Court also heard that two of the children were “emotionally broken” by what happened and “repeatedly ask why and how”.
Barrass had sought help from the local authority with the youngsters, texting a friend that she had loved her children “too much to kill them”, the court heard. But Kama Melly QC, prosecuting, said she was heard repeatedly making remarks such as “I gave you life, I can take it away” to the children. Following the murders, she took the surviving children, who are all under 13, to the bedroom and phoned the police.
Sentencing the two to life jail terms with a minimum of 35 years, Mr Justice James Goss, told Barrass: “You considered your love for them and fear of being parted from them entitled you to take their lives.”
A SURVIVING child of the Sheffield couple who murdered two of their sons and plotted to kill four more of their children, fears they will also become a murderer as a result, a court heard yesterday.
The two older children, whom their incestuous parents plied with prescription drugs in an attempt to kill them before trying to drown one of them in a bath, had been left “emotionally broken”, a judge was told.
The court heard the children did not know that their father was Brandon Machin, who is halfbrother to their mother, Sarah
Barrass. They believed instead that their father was dead, telling officers he had died during the Second World War.
All four children will need ongoing support, say social workers.
Kama Melly QC, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court: “When (the older two children) were told Sarah and Brandon had pleaded guilty to the murders of their brothers and the attempted murders of them, (one of them) said they were worried they would become a murderer when they were older because that’s what their mum and Brandon did.”
Miss Melly added: “Both (the older children) keep saying they just want a nice family home.”
The court heard that the two youngest children, who are aged under three, never asked for their mother or Machin, even when they were upset.
“There’s no way of knowing the long-term effect and impact on their lives at this stage,” Miss Melly said.
The judge, Mr Justice Goss, said: “The statement from their social worker on their behalf describes their inevitable confusion, the effect of the loss of their brothers.”
Barrass, 35, Machin, 39, were given life terms after they admitted murdering their sons Tristan and Blake, plotting to murder all six of the children and five counts of attempted murder, two of which were against the teenagers who died.
Miss Melly told the court that, to the outside world, it appeared that Barrass and her children lived relatively ordinary lives at their home in Sheffield’s Shiregreen district.
But she told the court: “Unbeknown to everyone but the defendants, Brandon Machin was
There’s no way of knowing the long-term effect and impact.
Prosecutor Kama Melly QC tells the court of the trauma suffered by the surviving children.
in a sexual relationship with his half-sister.”
It was clear that they had a consensual sexual relationship, she said.
She added that friends and relatives described Machin as a “pushover” and said that Barrass “definitely wore the trousers”.
The children’s mother had acted amid fears that the youngsters would be taken into care, the court heard.
After requesting help from a local authority, she texted a friend to say: “I’ve thought of every possible solution to this mess. Mass murder, putting them all in care, checking in to the local nut house.
“I love my kids too much to kill them, I can’t put them into care for the same reason.”
In her defence, Bryan Cox QC, said Barrass was “profoundly damaged by her childhood”.
The court heard that she told police she planned to kill the younger two children and herself after the older four had died.
She described how the children were “terrified” last May as she tried to make them take the tablets and that the child she tried to drown was “hysterical”.
Miss Melly said that, on May 24, Barrass had strangled Tristan by wrapping her dressing gown cord around his neck and pulling on it for around three minutes, while Machin strangled Blake with his hands.