"Alice Mackey, 42, wrongly believed she was a bad mother and was under the delusion that the best way of protecting her child, Annabel, was to kill her, Winchester crown court heard. The court was told that Mackey had a sense of looking down on herself from outside her body as she killed her daughter. It wasn't really me, she told her legal team."
"After drowning Annabel, Mackey went back to her house 300 metres away, in the village of Kingsley, dialled 999 and claimed her child had been abducted. Almost two years later she admitted she had killed Annabel and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Mr Justice Saini said it was a tragic case. He said he was satisfied that Mackey had been mentally unwell from the time Annabel was born until her death."
"He told her: You considered in your delusional state this was some form of act of mercy to Annabel. He said he accepted she was remorseful and had made progress in prison. Saini jailed Mackey for four years minus the 216 days she had so far spent in custody. After Mackey left the dock, Saini told the court: There are no winners in these situations. I just hope Miss Mackey can in the future lead a useful life."
Alice Mackey, 42, drowned her two-year-old daughter Annabel in a Hampshire pond while experiencing postpartum psychosis and delusions that killing would protect her child. She described dissociation, saying she felt she was looking down on herself and that "it wasn't really me." After the killing she returned home, called 999 claiming abduction, and nearly two years later admitted the killing, pleading guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. The judge found she had been mentally unwell from Annabel's birth until her death, accepted remorse and progress in custody, and sentenced her to four years minus time served. Her barrister outlined prior miscarriages, IVF treatment, and a severe collapse in mental health.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]