A woman named Veronique John, 50, dialled 999 and confessed “I just killed my two kids” after stabbing them with a knife, Nottingham Crown Court was told. According to the Guardian, Mrs John killed her 7-year-old daughter Elizabeth and 11-year-old son Ethan because she did not want her husband to have their custody.
She stabbed her son, Ethan, more than 20 times and inflicted brain damage on her daughter, Elizabeth, before tracking down her husband, Nathan John, and stabbing him in the stomach.
During the trial-of-facts hearing, it was revealed that Mrs John stabbed Ethan over 20 times and caused brain damage to her daughter Elizabeth. She then went to a car wash wearing a dressing gown and stabbed her partner, Nathan John, in the stomach.
She then returned home, dialled 999 and said: “I am calling to report I just killed my two kids.”
The charity shop worker allegedly told police who arrived at her Stoke-on-Trent home on June 11 last year, “If you have a gun, shoot me. I am not a monster – he was going to take them from me.”
The day before the fatal attacks, John was arrested for assaulting her husband with a piece of wood while their children were getting ready for bed, suspecting him of having an affair.
The court heard that John and her husband had significant difficulties in their relationship, and she did not want him to have an internet-enabled phone.
Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith stated that Mrs John’s “rage was boiling just under the surface” in the hours leading up to the children’s deaths.
“What happened on 11 June didn’t come out of the blue. Tension grew in the days before. That day she just erupted, killed her children and attacked Nathan,” he said.
Mr Grieves-Smith stated that Mrs John killed her children just hours after conducting a “chilling” internet search, asking, “Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?”
Ethan was pronounced dead after being found in a bedroom with a 17cm-long neck wound, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room with head trauma and “three areas of sharp force,” including one to her stomach.
The jury heard that a neighbour reported hearing “high-pitched screaming and crying that lasted for a little while” just minutes before John walked to the car wash where her husband had stayed the night.
The court heard how the 50-year-old later told interviewing officers: “I didn’t want my husband to get them [the children].”
She continued: “It’s something I was thinking about for a long time – just kill myself and the kids. Unless you guys are offering me the death penalty I have nothing else to say.
“I did it because I love my children – to protect the children. If there’s any possible way I could be put to death, I would like that. I mean it 100%.”
Mrs John is charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder and an alternative count of wounding, but has been ruled unfit to plead, Sky News reported.
She is currently being treated at a secure hospital and was not present in the dock to hear the Crown’s opening statement.
The trial is ongoing.
