UK Mother Who Drowned Toddlers Gets 10 Years in Prison, Social Media Users Outraged

UK Mother Who Drowned Toddlers Gets 10 Years in Prison, Social Media Users Outraged
A stock police tape photo (Stock photo CC0)
Jack Phillips
8/16/2019
Updated:
8/16/2019

A U.K. mother who drowned her twin toddlers in a bathtub out of “revenge” was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Aug. 16. On social media, there was outrage over the length of her prison term.

Samantha Ford, 38, killed her children Jake and Chloe last year after she split from their father, Steven Ford, ITV reported.

Prosecutors said that she killed the children out of “revenge” on her estranged spouse.

“I’ve killed my babies. Please let me die,” she told police after she was arrested. “I put them in the bath. We were meant to be together. I was going to jump off a cliff but it’s too dark.”

The two 23-month-olds were found dead in the bedroom of the home where she lived in Kent, England, the report said.

Ford denied murder, but prosecutors accepted an earlier plea of manslaughter by diminished responsibility, the BBC reported.

Ford will begin her sentence after getting treatment at a psychiatric hospital. Then, she will spend 10 years in prison, the judge said.

“The horror of what happened does not need any explanation by me,” Judge Edis said. “Anyone with any imagination can envisage for themselves what must have happened in that bathroom.”

“It is unlikely that they died simultaneously and it must have taken some time and required some determination,” he said.

Steven Ford said in a statement that the killings were “the most heinous, spiteful act on two innocent children,” The Independent reported.

“I have no doubt she did this with the intention of taking her own life and punishing me in the process,” he added. “I know how she behaves when things don’t go her way and when she doesn’t get what she wants.”

He continued: “It’s an extreme version of her character because she couldn’t get her own way, knowing how much I loved the children she knew it would be the ultimate punishment for me not going back to her.”

Relatives claimed that her mental health deteriorated after their breakup. Her family then decided that her twins should stay with their father.

Later that evening, she drowned them after her parents left, according to the Independent.

Psychiatrist Dr. Philip Joseph said her mental health was impaired due to “moderate” depressive illness, adding that she had “anger and betrayal” toward her husband had sought “revenge.”

Gillian Mezey, a professor, disagreed with his assessment and said she wouldn’t have killed her children if it wasn’t for her mental illness.

She said, “She was a good caring loving attentive mother by every account and her marriage to Steven Ford was also a rather successful one.”

Outrage

On social media, a number of users felt that her 10-year prison sentence was too light.
“[Ten] years for killing her own 2 kids. Dad now without his babies. Should have been 2 life sentences. The world we live in where it’s ok now to batter your husband to death with a hammer and get away with it and kill your 2 kids and get 10yrs. Horrific,” wrote one user.
Another man added: “Samantha Ford, 38, killed 23-month-old Jake and Chloe on Boxing Day after their father Steven Ford left her. 10 years for that!! Yet if you accuse people in high places of albeit very serious crimes which are false.. You get 18 years!!”
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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