Lindsay Clancy case: was it evil, or severe mental illness?

Given what happened to his dc he’s not going to be feeling too amenable to LC.

Literally in a few comments further up you said she didn’t throw herself out of the window, she slid down. There’s nothing to back that up at all. The woman’s spine exploded and she’s paralysed. She went into cardiac arrest. That doesn’t happen from sliding out of the window feet first.

Baby Callan was 8 months old.

It would be very unusual for PPP not to have been evidenced with irrational thoughts/delusions before that he got to that age, wouldn't it?

This white, educated, middle class, woman had much more help with her kids than the average Mum, and much more help with her MH than the average struggling with poor MH Mum.

There's no way there would be the outpouring of support for this woman if she'd been a black or Latino, poorly educated, poverty stricken, woman from a poor neighbourhood, and she certainly wouldn't have had the MH support Clancy had. I find that revolting, although I guess we empathise more with people we consider to be like us, hence the demographic of her vocal cheerleaders.

She'd been a voluntary inpatient at a hospital for 5 days not long prior to murdering her children, and I thought it was stated that it was 'explicitly noted' that she did not seem to have PPP.

She quite clearly planned when she was going to murder her children and made sure their father wouldn't be able to stop her. He was at home and she got him to go out.

That is a striking difference to similar cases such as Andrea Yates, Deirdre Morley, Tania Clarence who were left home alone with their children while their husbands were at work/away.

Depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts (co morbid OCD) is not a reasonable defence for strangling 3 small children to death.

I would ask anyone defending her to take some time to consider what it takes to strangle someone, let alone a small child a 'loving' mother would have some maternal feelings for.

You would have to have pure rage, hatred and a complete coldness, while a child is struggling and fighting you off, to watch them die, faces turning purple, eyes rolling back, and those few minutes would last a lifetime. She did that 3 times in a row. Probably with at least Cora already in distress from seeing what she'd done to their siblings and understanding what she was going to do to her.

I think she panicked after doing what she did, hence jumping out of the window, it wasn't a suicide attempt and she knew she wouldn't die, probably didn't think she'd be paralysed. She was medically trained.

She is a danger to the public at large because she's a proven murderer, of children.

She needs to be locked up for life, preferably in gen pop of a maximum security prison.

Given what happened to his dc he’s not going to be feeling too amenable to LC.

Of course not, it's just so sad and the failings are unbelievable, so many people knew she had deteriorating mental illness and had talked about being scared of harming her children but she was never formally detained and was left in charge of the children. That's what is hard to understand, why weren't the children removed from her.

Given what happened to his dc he’s not going to be feeling too amenable to LC.

Except that he says he supports and forgives her and that she was very unwell at the time.

Baby Callan was 8 months old.

It would be very unusual for PPP not to have been evidenced with irrational thoughts/delusions before that he got to that age, wouldn't it?

This white, educated, middle class, woman had much more help with her kids than the average Mum, and much more help with her MH than the average struggling with poor MH Mum.

There's no way there would be the outpouring of support for this woman if she'd been a black or Latino, poorly educated, poverty stricken, woman from a poor neighbourhood, and she certainly wouldn't have had the MH support Clancy had. I find that revolting, although I guess we empathise more with people we consider to be like us, hence the demographic of her vocal cheerleaders.

She'd been a voluntary inpatient at a hospital for 5 days not long prior to murdering her children, and I thought it was stated that it was 'explicitly noted' that she did not seem to have PPP.

She quite clearly planned when she was going to murder her children and made sure their father wouldn't be able to stop her. He was at home and she got him to go out.

That is a striking difference to similar cases such as Andrea Yates, Deirdre Morley, Tania Clarence who were left home alone with their children while their husbands were at work/away.

Depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts (co morbid OCD) is not a reasonable defence for strangling 3 small children to death.

I would ask anyone defending her to take some time to consider what it takes to strangle someone, let alone a small child a 'loving' mother would have some maternal feelings for.

You would have to have pure rage, hatred and a complete coldness, while a child is struggling and fighting you off, to watch them die, faces turning purple, eyes rolling back, and those few minutes would last a lifetime. She did that 3 times in a row. Probably with at least Cora already in distress from seeing what she'd done to their siblings and understanding what she was going to do to her.

I think she panicked after doing what she did, hence jumping out of the window, it wasn't a suicide attempt and she knew she wouldn't die, probably didn't think she'd be paralysed. She was medically trained.

She is a danger to the public at large because she's a proven murderer, of children.

She needs to be locked up for life, preferably in gen pop of a maximum security prison.

Well there you go, that’s more than many would. Why create issues when he’s said that?

Because it was in reply to you saying he wasn't going to be feeling amenable to her

I don’t think there’s an argument that she’s innocent, and nobody is saying that. She killed her children and it was heinous. However, the question is if she was mentally unwell and her judgement was impaired. If it was, then you have to put emotion aside (as difficult as that is) and focus on what the law says. I certainly don’t think she should be walking free, but I don’t see the benefit of her being in a prison where she isn’t going to receive psychiatric help.

This. Everyone seems to talk about poor HER, how awful for HER. Nobody seems to be talking about the poor children she MURDERED.

If she had been ill for a long time, and had thoughts previously of hurting her children, why the fuck didn't she walk away while she could?

Baby Callan was 8 months old.

It would be very unusual for PPP not to have been evidenced with irrational thoughts/delusions before that he got to that age, wouldn't it?

This white, educated, middle class, woman had much more help with her kids than the average Mum, and much more help with her MH than the average struggling with poor MH Mum.

There's no way there would be the outpouring of support for this woman if she'd been a black or Latino, poorly educated, poverty stricken, woman from a poor neighbourhood, and she certainly wouldn't have had the MH support Clancy had. I find that revolting, although I guess we empathise more with people we consider to be like us, hence the demographic of her vocal cheerleaders.

She'd been a voluntary inpatient at a hospital for 5 days not long prior to murdering her children, and I thought it was stated that it was 'explicitly noted' that she did not seem to have PPP.

She quite clearly planned when she was going to murder her children and made sure their father wouldn't be able to stop her. He was at home and she got him to go out.

That is a striking difference to similar cases such as Andrea Yates, Deirdre Morley, Tania Clarence who were left home alone with their children while their husbands were at work/away.

Depression, anxiety and intrusive thoughts (co morbid OCD) is not a reasonable defence for strangling 3 small children to death.

I would ask anyone defending her to take some time to consider what it takes to strangle someone, let alone a small child a 'loving' mother would have some maternal feelings for.

You would have to have pure rage, hatred and a complete coldness, while a child is struggling and fighting you off, to watch them die, faces turning purple, eyes rolling back, and those few minutes would last a lifetime. She did that 3 times in a row. Probably with at least Cora already in distress from seeing what she'd done to their siblings and understanding what she was going to do to her.

I think she panicked after doing what she did, hence jumping out of the window, it wasn't a suicide attempt and she knew she wouldn't die, probably didn't think she'd be paralysed. She was medically trained.

She is a danger to the public at large because she's a proven murderer, of children.

She needs to be locked up for life, preferably in gen pop of a maximum security prison.

Except that he says he supports and forgives her and that she was very unwell at the time.

I would argue that what we call evil is itself a mental health issue/personality disorder

It’s horrifying in 2026 that so many people still have no real concept of what psychosis is. Your brain, like your heart and liver, is an organ. It can go wrong. Psychosis leaves you unable to trust your senses or memory, in a different reality to everyone else. It’s terrifying for you and for those around you. It is no more a character flaw than heart disease is, and it can happen to any of us at any time. It happened to my 85-year-old Nan during lockdown, one of the sweetest and gentlest people I’ve ever met.

Believe me. You do not, in psychosis, “know what you are doing”. That’s rather the crux of it.

This is my argument too. Surely a person that is capable to kill someone that isn’t self defence has some form of mental illness/disorder? Nature made mothers to love and care for their children and it is the case in majority unless there’s a disorder or mental illness. Not saying the killer should get away with it. The question is whether she wasn’t aware of what she was doing, ie psychosis

Ask Patrick...

This. Everyone seems to talk about poor HER, how awful for HER. Nobody seems to be talking about the poor children she MURDERED.

If she had been ill for a long time, and had thoughts previously of hurting her children, why the fuck didn't she walk away while she could?