Samantha Ford: Depressed mother who drowned her toddlers in the bath out of 'anger' at estranged husband jailed for 10 years
Jake and Chloe Ford were 23 months old when they were killed
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A depressed mother who drowned her 23-month-old twins in the bath out of “anger” at her estranged husband has been jailed for 10 years.
Samantha Ford, 38, killed toddlers Jake and Chloe Ford at their rented home in Margate, Kent, on Boxing Day last year.
She then drove her Ford Galaxy at 100mph into the back of a lorry without a seatbelt on in the early hours of December 27.
When police managed to open the doors of her vehicle, she told them: “I’ve killed my babies. Please let me die. 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.”
Officers found the children, who were conceived by IVF, dead in their bedroom.
She denied murder but admitted two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in May this year.
Her husband Steven Ford, who attended the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, said in a statement that the killings were “the most heinous, spiteful act on two innocent children.“
“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.
“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.”
The couple had lived in Qatar for the first 10 years of their marriage but their relationship soured after they moved to Charing in Kent in 2018.
Before their split, Ford told her husband: “You have ripped my world apart now we are nothing but a miserable, broken family growing up in a shithole.”
Relatives said her mental health declined rapidly after the break-up. She sent multiple text messages trying to persuade him to return, including one pleading with him saying “I’m not a monster.”
By Christmas, her family decided that her mental health was so poor that the twins should stay with their father until Boxing Day.
Ford drowned them later that evening after her parents had left the house.
Psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph found that her mental function was impaired due to “moderate“ depressive illness. He told the court Ford had feelings of “anger and betrayal” towards her estranged husband and wanted “revenge” when she killed their children.
However professor Gillian Mezey disagreed that Ford was driven by anger and said Ford would never have harmed her children if it were not for her illness.
She added: “She was a good caring loving attentive mother by every account and her marriage to Steven Ford was also a rather successful one.”
Mr Justice Edis told Samantha Ford: “The horror of what happened does not need any explanation by me.
“Your anger with your husband was a significant contributory factor. You knew it would devastate him and I’m sure that is a reason why you did it.”
Ford will serve her sentence in a psychiatric unit until she is well enough to be transferred to prison, the Old Bailey has heard.
Additional reporting by Press Association