Friday 20 December 2013

FILICIDE (attempted, multiple): Wisconsin: Heidi Mann charged



A Taylor County mother who wanted to spare her four youngest children the pain of her pending divorce tried to asphyxiate them with carbon monoxide so the five of them could "be in heaven" together, prosecutors said Thursday.
Heidi S. Mann, 37, told investigators she loaded the kids into an SUV and let the engine run in an enclosed garage for about two hours, according to a criminal complaint charging her with four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 240 years in prison.
Mann said she and her husband were getting divorced and she was worried the younger children wouldn't be able to handle the situation, the complaint said. The children are 3, 6, 9 and 12.
Prosecutors say the alleged homicide attempt happened March 8 at Mann's home in the Village of Rib Lake. Authorities said they weren't told of the incident until this month.
Mann was arrested last week and ordered held on a $200,000 cash bond.
Police say she told them she spent a few days plotting to kill herself and the kids. She wavered on whether to go through with the plan, eventually deciding that March 8 would be the day.
"Heidi stated that she just felt 'peaceful' and felt like she was doing the right thing on that day," the complaint says.
"She just wanted to end her pain here and be in heaven with her children," the complaint says.
She took her four younger children into the SUV.
As the engine continued running she didn't feel anything happening and the kids didn't say anything, the complaint says. The 3-year-old fell asleep but Mann saw he was still breathing. He woke up a short time later.
At some point she turned off the vehicle. She told investigators she couldn't say why she decided to do so.
Sheriff Bruce Daniels said this week the children were physically OK and were being cared for by family members.

Friday 13 December 2013

FILICIDE: UK: Emma Wilson found guilty of murder

Baby boy battered to death by his mother who posed for a selfie next to his injured body as she faces life in prison

  • Jury find Emma Wilson guilty of murdering 11-month-old Callum
  • 25-year-old battered her tiny son causing him to suffer brain damage, nine fractured ribs, a broken arm and leg
  • Neighbours told of their ceiling shaking as they heard 'loud bangs' the night before Wilson dialled 999 telling the operator Callum was lifeless
  • She said Callum's two-year-old brother had inflicted the vicious attack
  • Wilson kept Callum's birth a secret, finally claiming he was her cousin's child
  • She buried her child in an unmarked communal grave
Callum Wilson died of brain damage after his mother Emma battered him, fracturing nine of his ribs, his arm and leg
Callum Wilson died of brain damage after his mother Emma battered him, fracturing nine of his ribs, his arm and leg
A mother who took a selfie with the battered body of the 11-month-old son she had beaten, causing him to suffer brain damage which later caused his death, is today facing prison.
Emma Wilson repeatedly hit baby Callum so violently her neighbour's ceiling shook.
She then blamed the attack on his two-year-old brother, the Old Bailey heard.
Callum was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with 'catastrophic injuries' on March 20, 2011.
A post mortem revealed the 11-month-old had suffered fatal brain damage.
During the attack Callum suffered nine fractured ribs, a broken leg and arm.
After inflicting the injuries, Wilson posed next to her crying son, grinning as she took a selfie.
The photographs revealed severe bruising to his face and another showed the 11-month-old moving away from a young boy wielding a pair of open secateurs.
But in a bid to offer an explanation Wilson blamed the attack on her other child, claiming Callum's 'boisterous' and 'rough' two-year-old brother was to blame.
She said he was jealous of his younger sibling.
In a gruesome twist, the 25-year-old, who had told people Callum was her cousin's son, buried his battered body in an unmarked communal grave.
A jury at the Old Bailey took 10 hours to find Wilson guilty of murder by a unanimous verdict.
During the trial jurors heard how Wilson left her new-born son in Wexham Park Hospital after he was born on April 23, 2010.
 She then kept his existence a secret for seven months, while he was in foster care.
She claimed she had put her son up for adoption because her boyfriend at the time, Neil Richardson, 'thought she couldn't cope with two children'.
Emma Wilson was found guilty of murdering her 11-month-old son Callum
Emma Wilson was found guilty of murdering her 11-month-old son Callum
Emma Wilson, 25, took a selfie, grinning next to the injured body of her crying son. Neighbours told how their ceiling shook as they heard repeated bangs the day before Wilson dialled 999 reporting her son lifeless
Wilson, left, arrives at the Old Bailey today. A jury spent 10 hours deliberating before returning a unanimous guilty verdict
Wilson, left, arrives at the Old Bailey today. A jury spent 10 hours deliberating before returning a unanimous guilty verdict
In November 2010 Wilson took Callum out of foster care and brought him to live in her council flat in Windsor.
She continued to lie about Callum in the months after he came to live with her and Wilson told her nursery he was ‘Callum Keeler’, her cousin’s son.
Neighbours described hearing five or six loud bangs that caused the ceiling to shake above their living room the night before paramedics were called to Wilson’s home in Windsor.
In cross examination prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC said: ‘It couldn’t have been your eldest child, climbing up the furniture and jumping off.
‘Their evidence was they [the bangs] were seconds apart.
‘He wouldn’t have been able to get up, jump off it and climb up it again.’
The next morning Wilson had told an emergency operator the child was ‘lifeless and not doing anything'.
Callum was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on March 20, 2011 with 'catastrophic' injuries. A post mortem revealed he died of brain damage
Callum was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on March 20, 2011 with 'catastrophic' injuries. A post mortem revealed he died of brain damage
The recording reveals Wilson said: ‘I just got him out the cot. He was fine when he went to bed. He’s lifeless and not doing anything. He’s making noises but I don’t know.’
Callum had obvious bruising to his face and later examination revealed he had suffered severe brain damage and fractures to nine ribs, left leg and his right arm.
The jury were shown computer-generated images of the injuries, some of which Wilson tried to blame on her efforts to revive her son.
‘I was holding him really tight because his head was very heavy’, she told the court.
‘Well, I was panicking, he wasn’t holding his head.’
She added that when she tried to check her son's airway she tore his lip.
She claimed she never hurt her son and said: ‘It’s the best thing in the world being a mum.’
But Mr Dunkels said that Wilson had been unable to put forward a ‘plausible explanation’ for the injuries.
‘Callum was in her sole care at her flat throughout that 13-hour period and nothing she has said can explain what has happened to him.
‘The effect of the injuries would have been immediate and catastrophic.’
Wilson was accused of killing her child because she knew her partner at the time, Neil Richardson, was not the father, according to her defence barrister Michael Turner QC.
Mr Turner added: ‘Emma Wilson chose to bury Callum in a communal grave without a headstone.’
Wilson denied murder. She will be sentenced on January 24.

Sunday 1 December 2013

FILICIDE: France: Fabienne Kabou found child incompatible with her love life

Pictured on CCTV the horrifying moment French mother calmly pushes her baby girl to drown in the sea because she claimed child was 'incompatible' with her love life

  • Fabienne Kabou, 36, has admitted to police she wanted to kill the child
  • In police interview she said baby was 'incompatible' with her and boyfriend
  • Checked into hotel in Berck sur Mer with baby Adelaide on November 19
  • The next day Adelaide was found dead, strapped in pram, in the water
  • Demonstrators have taken to streets calling for crackdown on child cruelty
Horrific: A CCTV image has been released showing a woman pushing a pram in Berck sur Mer on November 19
Horrific: A CCTV image has been released showing a woman pushing a pram in Berck sur Mer on November 19
A mother faces life imprisonment after confessing she drowned her 15-month-old daughter in the English Channel because the child was 'incompatible' with her love life.
CCTV footage has emerged of Fabienne Kabou, 36, from Senegal, pushing little Adelaide to the coast of Berck sur Mer on November 19.
The next day, Adelaide was found dead, strapped in a pushchair submerged in the water, by a fisherman.
After ten days of searching nationwide, police used DNA from the pram to trace Ms Kabou to the home she shares with a 63-year-old man in Paris, where she was arrested.
Ms Kabou, a philosophy student, told police she took the drastic move after deciding motherhood was 'incompatible' with her love life with Adelaide's father.
The case has sparked outrage as hundreds took to the streets outside the court and on the coast in a White March - a French style of demonstrating against child cruelty.
Ms Kabou had told her boyfriend, a sculptor, that she had handed over the little girl to her grandmother who had agreed to look after her in Senegal, police claim.
On Saturday, Kabou was taken under Police guard to Boulogne sur Mer and questioned for four hours by an examining judge in a closed court session.
The judge placed her under investigation for murder. She was remanded in custody pending her trial.
Her lawyer Fabienne Roy-Nansion  who was present during the interrogation said that her client had made a full confession.
In an interview with Le Parisien newspaper the father of Adelaïde said that Fabienne Kabou had been 'a magnificent' mother to her child.
Neighbours of the couple said they were at a loss to understand how the mother of the Adelaïde could have wanted to be rid of her.
Berck sur Mer: Ms Kabou was said to have checked into a seafront hotel on November 19 before going to the sea
Berck sur Mer: Ms Kabou was said to have checked into a hotel on November 19 before going to the sea
Tragic: The French Police Judiciaire has released images of Adelaide's onesie that she was found in
Tragic: The French Police Judiciaire has released images of Adelaide's onesie that she was found in
Court: Ms Kabou, 36, is here covered in the back of a car heading to court in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Northern France
Court: Ms Kabou, 36, is here covered in the back of a car heading to court in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Northern France
Hundreds have taken to the streets in the past couple of days paying homage to the little girl in a White March.
The first White March took place on 1996 in Belgium as people demonstrated against Marc Dutroux, a serial killer and child molester.
Gerard Lopez, the president of the Institute of Victimology and legal expert at the Paris Court of Appeal, told 20minutes.fr: 'First and foremost, she wanted to save her marriage by killing her child. 
'This would probably not have changed anything. 
'She is not crazy. Her actions were premeditated.
She was traced to a house in an eastern suburb of Paris where she lives with a 63-year-old man
Arrested: She was traced to a house in an eastern suburb of Paris where she lives with a 63-year-old man
Demonstrating: A banner reads 'Our thoughts are with you, Princess'
Demonstrating: A banner reads 'Our thoughts are with you, Princess' held by a teenager as inhabitants of Berck-sur-Mer, northern France take part in a White March to pay homage to little Adelaide
White March: The first White March took place in 1996 in Belgium
White March: The first White March took place in 1996 in Belgium as people showed their anger towards serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux who kept girls in his basement
Mourning: People left flowers, toys and messages on the coast as French people express outrage in Berck
Mourning: People left flowers, toys and messages on the coast as French people express outrage in Berck
Tributes: A bouquet of white roses with a note reading 'rest in peace little angel' is left on the beach
Tributes: A bouquet of white roses with a note reading 'rest in peace little angel' is left on the beach
'The investigation will now determine whether the woman was a victim of domestic or psychological violence from her partner. 
'Some develop narcissistic and immature behavior at the birth of a child. 
'By getting rid of the child, she may have been trying to meet the needs of her boyfriend who wanted more attention.'