Killer mother's 'dark thoughts'

Joanne Hill's husband said he would return from work to find her drunk

A depressed mother who drowned her disabled daughter believed the child's cerebral palsy was a punishment for her own mental illness, a jury has heard.

Joanne Hill, 32, drowned four-year-old Naomi last year in the bath at their home in Connah's Quay, Flintshire.

Her husband Simon Hill said she could not accept the disability, thought it was her fault, and had "dark thoughts".

At Chester Crown Court, Mrs Hill admits killing Naomi but denies murder due to diminished responsibility.

"When she was poorly, she felt it was her fault that Naomi had this disability," said Mr Hill, 38.

"At other times, she would say: 'It's OK, she'll be fine with a bit of physio.' She was trying to hide it away.

"She thought it was her fault when she was depressed. She had dark thoughts, did Joanne, and thought she was being punished in some way."

To which prosecuting barrister, Michael Chambers QC, asked: "Because she had a disabled daughter?"

"Yes," replied Mr Hill.

Mr Hill said such was his wife's reluctance to accept their daughter's condition, she waited half an hour during a phone call between them to confirm to him that she had cerebral palsy.

Naomi wore callipers after being diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy

He said: "Joanne's reaction was not very good at all. Jo was on her own and went to the hospital to find out from the doctor. He told her.

"It was a good half an hour we were on the phone before she told me.

"She was saying the doctors thought it was nothing to worry about and we could get around it, but, in the end, it was cerebral palsy."

Mr Hill, a fleet manager for a car rental firm, told the jury he would often return home from a late shift to find Mrs Hill drunk and Naomi asleep.

Describing her fondness for a drink, he said: "Towards the end, it was very difficult. Jo more often than not was drunk in the kitchen when I got home and the house would be in the dark and Naomi would be asleep on the settee in the lounge."

The court heard how the couple married in July 2003 a few weeks after Naomi was born, and had been together since 1999.

He said he first became aware of the extent of her mental problems around his 30th birthday, in April 2000, after both her grandmothers died within months of each other.

'Secretive'

He said: "That was when I first noticed she was ill, that's when I first noticed her depression, she was very withdrawn.

"I would come home from work and she hadn't gone to work, she was just sat on the sofa".

He told how the couple split for a while and she went into hospital and appeared to recover.

The court was told that Naomi Hill was killed at the family home

"She kind of bounced back quite quickly," Mr Hill said. "Within two or three weeks of us getting back together she seemed to be back to her old self".

However by 2002 he said her drinking was getting "heavy" and "more secretive." He said she stopped paying the mortgage a couple of times and began spending "irrationally" on clothes and drink.

In 2003 after Naomi was born he said his wife "withdrew into herself" and was taking anti-depressants, although she seemed to recover before they married.

She was later struck with another bout of illness at Christmas 2006 when Mr Hill described how has wife "couldn't function properly."

He said: "She couldn't speak, let alone do anything else at the time. She kind of switches off, as if a shield comes up. She doesn't really do anything - just sits and stares".

The trial continues.