Jury finds that mother inflicted wounds which killed her two young children

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A mother inflicted injuries which led to the deaths of her daughter and son, aged seven and 11, and also unlawfully stabbed their father in the stomach, a jury has found.

Veronique John was not present at Nottingham Crown Court as a jury in a fact-finding hearing decided she was responsible for unlawfully causing wounds in attacks which the prosecution described as “almost too horrific to contemplate”.

Her daughter Elizabeth was pronounced dead at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on June 11 last year, having suffered a fractured skull and knife wounds, while the 50-year-old’s son suffered more than 20 sharp force injuries.

John, who has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder as well as personality and depressive disorders, was ruled unfit to enter a plea or take part in the trial.

She is being treated at Rampton high security hospital in Nottinghamshire and now faces an indefinite hospital order following the jury’s ruling.

The trial of the facts hearing did not require jurors to return verdicts of guilty or not guilty on charges of murder and attempted murder, with the panel instead asked to decide whether John “did the acts alleged against her”.

After hearing evidence over five days, the jury at Nottingham Crown Court took around 40 minutes to reach its unanimous decision.

The court was told John, originally from the Caribbean island of St Vincent, “erupted” into violence at her home in Flax Street, Stoke, because she did not want her husband, Nathan John, to have their children.

She then headed to a car wash where he worked to stab him in the stomach.

After returning home, John dialled 999 and told the operator: “I am calling to report I just killed my two kids.”

The charity shop worker told police after her arrest: “If you have a gun shoot me. I am not a monster – he was going to take them from me.”

John, said to be boiling with rage after being arrested for assaulting her husband while suspecting him of having an affair, later stated in interview: “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. When I say that I am not joking. I mean it 100%.”

She went on to claim that she could not remember anything about the nature or number of the injuries inflicted on the children.

Ethan was declared dead after being found in a bedroom, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room, having suffered head trauma and “three areas of sharp force” injury, including to her stomach.

Medical efforts to save the children, who both had neck wounds, were “futile” due to the severity of their injuries, the court heard.

The judge had ruled that John, who did not advance a defence of insanity, was unfit to plead after being told by psychiatrists that she was “mentally very unwell” and would be unable to follow the course of the proceedings.

Mr Justice Choudhury will dispose of the case against John, who came to the UK nine years ago and has no previous convictions, later on Monday.