UK Woman in Court Over Bath Drowning Death of Daughter

Stock footage of a U.K. ambulance (Reuters/Luke MacGregor)

A British woman is in court this week for the killing of her young daughter, and gruesome details were shared in front of a jury, according to local news reports on Dec. 14.

Carly Ann Harris, 38, denies killing her daughter, Amelia Brooke Harris, at their home in the village of Trealaw, Wales.

A judge told the jurors in the Newport Crown Court that they have to decide if Harris is not guilty of murder by reason of insanity or guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, the BBC reported.

Harris told police in interviews that she’s a “fallen angel and had to prove her strength.” She also apparently told her girl before the incident: “You’re going to see the angels. See you in heaven.”

“On that day, this defendant, Carly Ann Harris, killed her four-year-old daughter Amelia by placing her in a bath of water and deliberately drowning her,” said prosecutor Michael Jones, reported The Guardian. The prosecutor then said Harris placed her body on a table and then attempted to set a fire.

He said there is “no dispute” Harris committed the crime.

Jones added to the jury: “You will be hearing evidence about Amelia’s injuries and her cause of death and the mental health issues that affect this defendant.”

“The evidence you hear is not in dispute between the prosecution and defense. There is no dispute about what Miss Harris did that day or what took place before or after Amelia was killed by the defendant,” he said. “You will be hearing psychiatric evidence from two experienced psychiatrists as to the issues that affected and continue to affect Miss Harris.”

Jones, according to the BBC, said Harris was suffering from anxiety, believing people were stalking her.

The prosecutor added: “As horrific and unimaginable as this was her mental health condition was so profound it attracts a special verdict in law,” reported Wales Online.

Then police were called to speak in front of the jury, they said Harris told them: “The angels told me to do it. Just arrest me, it’s OK.” Then, she said her daughter “will be OK. Trust me. I’m not crazy, I promise you.”

“I promise you I wouldn’t do that to my only girl if she wasn’t returning,” the woman told them. But later, she said, ”I’m a monster.”

One of her neighbors decided to call the police and went to Harris’s house where she saw the remains of the girl, the Independent reported.

Diagnosed with Schizophrenia

A neighbor said that to her, Harris “appeared ... dazed,” according to Jones.

The prosecutor also said Harris had been taking small amounts of amphetamines, but he said experts agreed that she hadn’t suffered a drug-induced psychosis, the Guardian reported.

Dr. Arden Tomison, a psychiatrist, diagnosed the woman with schizophrenia, saying she had an “abnormality of mental function, which substantially impaired her ability to form a rational judgment.”

Jones 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.”

South Wales Police issued a statement from Amelia’s family, calling the girl a “loving daughter, sister, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, niece and cousin.” The statement added: “Amelia was beautiful both inside and out and was a fun-loving, caring and bubbly little girl,” Wales Online reported.

“She was taken far too early from us and had her whole life ahead of her. Words cannot convey how we are feeling at this moment in time,” the family stated. “We know our lives will never be the same again.”