A former City financier suffocated her two children and placed their bodies in the boot of her car to get back at their father for "rejecting her", a court has heard.
The bodies of Elise, 2, and Harry Donnison,, were left in the boot of a car Photo: PA
Fiona Donnison, 45, who was described as self-obsessed and controlling, carried out the murders after becoming furious at her former partner for getting close to another woman, it was said.
After killing her children she returned to the family home armed with two kitchen knives, intent on killing her husband. The jury heard that she murdered her children as the "ultimate and final weapon" to get back at him.
Christine Laing QC, prosecutor, said it was the Crown's case that Donnison killed three-year-old Harry and two-year-old Elise Donnison in order to hurt their father in the most extreme way possible.
She said that the defendant suffered from narcissism, having a belief in her attractiveness, abilities and entitlement so strong that she could not stand rejection.
"She is somebody who lacks empathy for others, has an inability to feel for them, including her own children," said Miss Laing.
After her relationship with the children's father broke down, and he appeared to be starting a relationship with an old school friend, Donnison focused on making his life as miserable as possible, it was said.
After her relationship with the children's father broke down, and he appeared to be starting a relationship with an old school friend, Donnison focused on making his life as miserable as possible, it was said.
"When that behaviour failed to have the desired effect, so desperate was she to get back at him that she used the children as the final and ultimate weapon," Miss Laing said.
The court heard that the defendant, already a mother of two, met Paul Donnison in 1999 when both were married to other people.
They never married but the defendant changed her name by deed poll and they had two children together.
But their relationship was strained and exacerbated by issues concerning her two teenage sons who lived with them and the thousands of pounds worth of debt she was prone to accumulating.
She also lost her job in 2009.
It became so bad that the defendant moved out of the family home in Heathfield, East Sussex, without telling Paul Donnison where she had gone, jurors at Lewes Crown Court were told. She moved with the four children to a rented home yet remained jealous and controlling of her partner, and often exhibited highly manipulative behaviour, the court heard.
She remained convinced that her husband was seeing someone behind her back.
He later found out she had moved into a house in Lightwater, Surrey, 100 yards from where his first wife lived with their two children, despite having no connections to the area.
Miss Laing said the couple later reconciled and made plans to move in together again but Donnison remained jealous of a woman he had struck up a platonic relationship with after she had left.
Donnison would often refused to let him in the house and once even threw all of his possessions out on to the driveway.
She said the two children, "described by everyone who knew them as delightful, well-mannered, affectionate children", were last seen alive on the afternoon of January 26 last year and it is believed they were likely to have been killed sometime that evening.
Donnison denies two charges of murder.
Miss Laing said: "They had been suffocated, most probably by having a pillow or some other form of bedding placed over their faces."
Miss Laing said Donnison had killed the children at her rented house in Lightwater and then driven to Heathfield, parked the car, and gone into Meadowside armed with two kitchen knives.
"We suggest the purpose of her doing so was that having informed Paul Donnison of the deaths of the children the defendant also intended to kill him and no doubt blame him for killing the children," she said.
However she added that Mr Donnison was not at the house and did not return that night or the next morning.
She said both were in the pyjamas when they were found by police officers in the boot of Donnison's Nissan car which was parked in Mill Close, Heathfield, around the corner from their former family home named Meadowside.
At around 10.45am on January 27, the defendant went to Heathfield police station and told officers she had killed her children.
She would not tell them where they were but a search of the area soon located them to the boot of the car.
Dressed all in black and with her arm in a black sling, Donnison sat in the dock with her head bowed as Miss Laing outlined the case.
The barrister said Donnison will claim she was suffering from depression and was not in her right mind at the time of the killings, and that the charges should be reduced to manslaughter.
Miss Laing said: "This is understandably a complex case particularly in relation to the motive.
"We say that responsibility lies not as a result of any mental illness but we say as a result of her personality."
"Why any of this resulted in the defendant killing the children, she had not said.
"She claims to have no memory at all of the events that led to the killing of Harry and Elise."
The trial continues.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8630971/City-financier-killed-her-children-after-relationship-with-father-broke-down.html
The court heard that the defendant, already a mother of two, met Paul Donnison in 1999 when both were married to other people.
They never married but the defendant changed her name by deed poll and they had two children together.
But their relationship was strained and exacerbated by issues concerning her two teenage sons who lived with them and the thousands of pounds worth of debt she was prone to accumulating.
She also lost her job in 2009.
It became so bad that the defendant moved out of the family home in Heathfield, East Sussex, without telling Paul Donnison where she had gone, jurors at Lewes Crown Court were told. She moved with the four children to a rented home yet remained jealous and controlling of her partner, and often exhibited highly manipulative behaviour, the court heard.
She remained convinced that her husband was seeing someone behind her back.
He later found out she had moved into a house in Lightwater, Surrey, 100 yards from where his first wife lived with their two children, despite having no connections to the area.
Miss Laing said the couple later reconciled and made plans to move in together again but Donnison remained jealous of a woman he had struck up a platonic relationship with after she had left.
Donnison would often refused to let him in the house and once even threw all of his possessions out on to the driveway.
She said the two children, "described by everyone who knew them as delightful, well-mannered, affectionate children", were last seen alive on the afternoon of January 26 last year and it is believed they were likely to have been killed sometime that evening.
Donnison denies two charges of murder.
Miss Laing said: "They had been suffocated, most probably by having a pillow or some other form of bedding placed over their faces."
Miss Laing said Donnison had killed the children at her rented house in Lightwater and then driven to Heathfield, parked the car, and gone into Meadowside armed with two kitchen knives.
"We suggest the purpose of her doing so was that having informed Paul Donnison of the deaths of the children the defendant also intended to kill him and no doubt blame him for killing the children," she said.
However she added that Mr Donnison was not at the house and did not return that night or the next morning.
She said both were in the pyjamas when they were found by police officers in the boot of Donnison's Nissan car which was parked in Mill Close, Heathfield, around the corner from their former family home named Meadowside.
At around 10.45am on January 27, the defendant went to Heathfield police station and told officers she had killed her children.
She would not tell them where they were but a search of the area soon located them to the boot of the car.
Dressed all in black and with her arm in a black sling, Donnison sat in the dock with her head bowed as Miss Laing outlined the case.
The barrister said Donnison will claim she was suffering from depression and was not in her right mind at the time of the killings, and that the charges should be reduced to manslaughter.
Miss Laing said: "This is understandably a complex case particularly in relation to the motive.
"We say that responsibility lies not as a result of any mental illness but we say as a result of her personality."
"Why any of this resulted in the defendant killing the children, she had not said.
"She claims to have no memory at all of the events that led to the killing of Harry and Elise."
The trial continues.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8630971/City-financier-killed-her-children-after-relationship-with-father-broke-down.html
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