To question the jail sentence for the mum who stabbed her 4 year old?

[Liketochat1]

There's such a sad story of a mum who stabbed her 4 year old daughter in the news at the moment.www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9510938/Nurse-who-stabbed-her-four-year-old-to-death-gets-12-years.html.
She looks like such a broken woman. She not only killed her daughter but also tried to kill herself leaving herself with some brain damage and confined to a wheel chair with other physical disabilities. At the time of the attack she was depressed and facing charges for malpractice and had been left by her partner that day.
She has just been sentenced to 12 years in jail. Do you think she should be jailed? I can't help help but feel she's suffered so much already. Am I unreasonable?

I'm sorry, she has the right to harm/kill herself, but not her child.

I think she has to be punished, too many times we hear of Fathers (it more commonly is fathers) killing themselves and their DCs to punish their former partners.

If she was judged mentally competent then it was murder.

Oh I'm surprised by that expat. If anything I would have thought society would be harsher on a mother who kills her children, due to our view of motherhood, often primary carer, primary nurturer etc.

Sorry should have read the thread more carefully, manslaughter.

But given the freedom given on MS sentences it must have been judged she knew what she was doing.

Her prison sentence may only be short, but it will be a living hell. She can't be watched the whole time, and prisoners will be baying for blood.

missperception

What depths of misery that poor woman will live the remainder of her life

At least she has a life - unlike her poor daughter so I would reserve the "poors" for her. And I do have a lot of understanding of mental illness and see it trotted out as a blanket excuse - what I do think the general public have little understanding of is the difference between "bad" and "mad" and personality disorders and mental illness. Yes some people can kill someone whilst not responsible for their actions - that is be psychotic at the time of the offence. But that is not the case here - she wasnt psychotic. I dont know her but I would imagine her mental state has been carefully assessed by the court.

I dont think this is more common i think its just people are no longer beliving parents and cafass are driven to make contact happen regardless

My mate is being stalked by her ex and she discovered he had planted a listening divise in her flat ( he is up in court next month for this and a few other issues ) he is acting very dangrous 6 weeks ago he tried to run her off the road she ened up having a head on collision with another car (her two children were in the back 3 and 5 months

He has sent serval texts saying he would rather the chikdren dead than have another man raise them

And it was only yesturday cafas rung to ask why she wont alllow contact and that they really feel it would be best

i dont understand why she is not in a secure unit?

shesariver extacly having a mental health issue dose not mean you dont know what your doing and sadly thats what many think

You often see this exuse used with mothers who abuse or neglect their children also

Secure unit?

I hadn't read the little girl took hours to die.

Cruel, callous and she deserves longer. She murdered an innocent child.

She might be moved to a hospital. Theresa Riggi was moved from prison to a psychiatric hospital. She will be deported after her sentence is served, too.

secure unit. i mean, asylum. under mental health services.

She isn't mentally ill

And Im not saying she has a personality disorder either before someone comes along and criticises me for diagnosing by internet, I cant possibly do that

It is however very interesting that she couldnt see her daughter as a separate human being and saw her as an emotional extension of herself.

Theresa Riggi sorry i am not up top speed on her could you fill me in

12 years if about 50 years to short IMO.

shesariver what just like some men?

and the woman Fiona somebody, killed her 2 little children, then tried to kill herself. she is a mental health secure unit. i spose it all depends on what the psychiatrists say at court.

Theresa Riggi was jailed for killing her 3 children in Edinburgh.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-16276442

she is not in a secure unit because she is probably deemed well mentally now. Secure units (likes of ashworth etc) are for very disturbed people and having depression is not comparable to the likes of Ian Brady (severe personality disorder) or schizophrenia. I am not for one minute saying all schizophrenic people murder (my brother and uncle are both diagnosed) I am just stating that it is an smi (serious mental illness) where depression is not

CrispyCod: "I wasn't in that women's head when she did it therefore am in no place to comment on her reasons or thinking."

Possibly the most sensible thing anyone has said on this thread.

"I'm sure those that gave her the sentence were in a better position and armed with more relevant information in order to pass the judgement they did."

Well, you'd like to think so.

I would think most prisoners have depression! Simply due to lifestyle and living conditions. The can't all be in a cosy hospital!

thebeesnees79 funny that now the trials over she is "well" but when facing life she was deprssed amazing

Theresa Riggi is an American woman who was living with her American husband in Aberdeenshire when their marriage broke up. She moved with their three children, 8-year-old twin boys and a 5-year-old girl, to Edinburgh to avoid courts in a custody dispute. She then stabbed each child 8 times (they all had defensive wounds to their arms and hands), turned on the gas (which could have caused the attached flats and homes around her to explode) and jumped off a balcony.

She survived with injuries and admitted killing her children.

She was sentenced to 16 years in prison for culpable homicide (manslaughter in Scotland) with diminished responsibility.

But she was attacked in prison so much they moved her.

mrbo

Again Im wary of saying because I dont know this woman but this failure to see your children as separate emotional beings is common in a well known personality disorder, where people also fear rejection and abandonment.

The court has heard she suffered some sort of mental imbalance but is not mentally ill now.