‘THE ANGELS HAVE TAKEN HER’
MURDER TRIAL HEARS MUM KILLED FOUR-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IN ‘A SACRIFICE TO GOD’
A WOMAN drowned her four-year-old daughter before setting her body on fire after believing she had to sacrifice her to God, a court heard yesterday.
Carly Ann Harris, 38, killed Amelia Brooke Harris at their home after suffering a mental breakdown which made her believe she was saving the world.
Newport Crown Court was told that Amelia’s body was found wrapped in a sheet on a table in their garden in Trealaw, Rhondda, on June 8 this year.
Prosecutor Michael Jones QC said: “On that day Harris killed her fouryear-old daughter Amelia by placing her in a bath of water and deliberately drowning her at their home address.
“The defendant then took Amelia’s dead body out of the bath, covered her with a sheet, carried her downstairs and placed her body on a coffee table that was situated in the back garden, and then set fire to Amelia’s body.”
Mr Jones said that, on the day of the death, neighbour Megan Griffiths heard a raised voice saying “Mummy, Mummy, Mummy”. She mentioned it to her partner, Jake Barlow, but he said he had not heard anything.
A short time later Mr Barlow heard screaming outside and went into the street with Miss Griffiths.
Miss Griffiths saw Harris standing in the front garden, looking “dazed”, and the defendant told her: “God will be with her. The angels have taken her.”
The neighbour dialled 999 and went into the back garden of Harris’ house where she saw Amelia’s charred remains.
When the police arrived at the scene, Harris told them: “The angels told me to do it. Just arrest me. It’s OK.”
The court heard a family member said Harris had “not been well” for some six weeks before the incident, and would stare out of the back window saying people were “stalking” her.
Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Jones was called to the house, where he found the brown duvet covering the “severely burned body of a child”.
Prosecutor Mr Jones told jurors there was no dispute that Harris killed her daughter or events leading up to the incident, but they were tasked with deciding whether she was not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, or guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Mr Jones said Harris had been taking “small amounts” of amphetamines leading up to the incident, but experts agreed she had not been suffering from drug-induced psychosis.
Dr Arden Tomison, a psychiatrist, diagnosed Harris with schizophrenia and said at the time she was suffering form “abnormality of mental function which substantially impaired her ability to form a rational judgment”.
He said she appeared to have experienced “paranoid and religious delusions” and believed she had to kill Amelia to save the world, and was being tested by God who would then return her daughter to her.
Another psychiatrist, Dr Phillip Joseph, agreed Harris had suffered from schizophrenia following a urinary tract infection in 2014.
Mr Jones said: “It is common ground between the prosecution and the defence that the defendant was suffering from mental illness.”
He added: “At the time of the act she was suffering such a disease of the mind that she knew the nature of what she was doing and intended to kill Amelia, but she did not know what she was doing was wrong.”
Harris’ friend, Jody Maher, told the court in a statement Harris was a “bubbly” person, and added: “Amelia adored her mother and they were always dancing and singing together.”
Other statements described Harris’ declining mental health in the weeks before Amelia died.
Family friend Leah Edghill said she saw Harris and Amelia out shopping, describing the mother as “more hyper than usual”.
She said: “Carly said Hitler was coming back to kill her because of her beliefs. She saw a man in a reflective jacket and Carly was convinced he was signalling to Hitler to kill her. Her behaviour was bizarre.”
Kate Brunner QC, defending, said Harris would not be giving evidence, saying: “It is agreed she is still very unwell.”
Harris, from Brithweunydd Road, Trealaw, Tonypandy, denies murder and manslaughter.
The trial continues.