A mother who suspected her husband was having an affair murdered her two children because she did not want him to get custody of them, a jury has heard.
Veronique John, 50, allegedly stabbed her 11-year-old son Ethan more than 20 times and caused brain damage to her seven-year-old daughter Elizabeth before discovering her husband Nathan at a car wash and stabbing him in the stomach.
On June 11, last year, she reportedly returned to her home in Stoke-on-Trent, dialed 999, and stated, “I am calling to report I just killed my two kids.”
A trial-of-facts hearing is presently continuing at Nottingham Crown Court because John has been judged to be ‘under a disability’ and ‘unable to engage in the trial in any meaningful sense’, judge Mr Justice Choudhury told the jury.
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When police arrived at her home, John, a charity shop worker, allegedly told them, “If you have a gun, shoot me.” I’m not a monster; he was going to take them from me.
She is reportedly accused of telling interrogating officers later: ‘I didn’t want my spouse to have them.
‘I’ve been thinking about it for a long time: just murder myself and the kids. Unless you offer me the death penalty, I have nothing else to say.
‘I did it because I love my children and want to protect them. If there is any chance I could be executed, I would prefer it. I mean it completely.
John was born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent, and prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith stated that she had searched the internet for ‘Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?’. just hours before she murdered her children.
A day after being detained for hitting her husband with a piece of wood, Mr. Grieves-Smith stated that her ‘anger was seething just under the surface’.
John and her spouse had had major relationship issues, and she did not want him to get an internet-enabled phone.
Two days before the attacks, the jury was informed that John became enraged and slapped her spouse with a wooden slat while their children were getting ready for bed.
Mr John filed a complaint with police, who arrested her at her home on June 10 and interviewed her under caution before issuing her with a community resolution notice.
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Shortly after 2 p.m. on June 11, John went to the car wash where her husband had spent the night and stabbed him in the stomach, the court heard.
Mr Grieves-Smith recounted what Mr John claimed in a subsequent 999 call: ‘My wife just came to the car wash and stabbed me – she said that she had just killed the kids.’
Mr Grieves-Smith added: “What happened on June 11th was not unexpected. Tension had grown in the previous days. That day, she erupted, murdered her children, and assaulted Nathan. Ethan was pronounced dead after being located in a bedroom with a 17cm-long neck wound, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room with head trauma and ‘three locations of sharp force’ injury, including the stomach.
A few minutes before John headed to the car wash, a neighbor reported hearing ‘high-pitched screaming and wailing that continued for a little while’.
John, of Flax Street in Stoke, is charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder, and an additional crime of wounding, but has been declared ineligible to plead.
The 50-year-old, who is being treated in a secure hospital, was not in court to hear the Crown’s opening statement dailyadvent stated.
Judge Justice Choudhury told the jury, “This trial is slightly unusual because the defendant was found to be disabled.”
“She is unable to engage in the trial in any meaningful way.
‘Your role is to decide whether the defendant unlawfully inflicted injuries on and killed Ethan and Elizabeth, resulting in their deaths, and unlawfully inflicted injuries on Mr John.’
The trial continues.
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