Mother detained for child deaths

Mrs Navaneethan suffered delusions

A 37-year-old woman has been committed to a psychiatric hospital after admitting killing two of her children.

Sasikala Navaneethan, of Carshalton, south London, cut the throats of her five-year-old son and four-year-old daughter. She was pregnant at the time.

She pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to their manslaughter and the attempted murder of her six-month-old daughter, who survived the attack.

After the assaults in May 2008 she drank poison to try to kill herself.

She said she stabbed and cut the throats of her son Shanjayan and daughter Sharani, and her baby girl Trishana, because she did not want to leave them behind.

The children, I have murdered them by knife. I have taken poison 999 call made by Sasikala Navaneethan

The Old Bailey heard she was unable to cope as her husband Navarajah, 39, ran a convenience store, working from 0630 to 2300 at the shop and off licence in Brighton Road, Croydon.

David Waters QC, prosecuting, said that at 2100 on Mrs Navaneethan rang her husband to remind him to bring home milk.

An hour later she rang 999 and told the operator: "My husband beats me so therefore we do not want to live.

"The children, I have murdered them by knife. I have taken poison."

When officers arrived they found the children lying on a bed in order of age.

Civil war

The court heard there was no evidence to show she had been beaten by her husband.

Mr Navaneethan told police their family life was happy and the local medical centre said his wife had never complained of mental problems.

But the court heard Mrs Navaneethan had suffered a breakdown when she was about 18, during the Sri Lankan civil war, before coming to Britain.

She told psychiatrists she had been suffering from depression after Trishana's birth and having delusions.

You need treatment rather than punishment Judge Brian Barker

The Common Serjeant, Judge Brian Barker, told Mrs Navaneethan: "This is a profoundly sad and tragic case.

"It seems to me your turmoil and your actions are virtually impossible for an outsider to understand.

"This is the case of a sick person who continues to be sick now. You need treatment rather than punishment."

David Etherington QC, for the defendant, said cultural expectations may have resulted in Mrs Navaneethan being unable to tell her GP she was mentally unwell.

"She believed there was no point in her living any longer and she could not leave the children with her husband," he said.

Mrs Navaneethan had responded to medication and was filled with terrible guilt about what she had done, he added.

Since her arrest she has given birth to her fourth child.