A 50-year-old woman in the United Kingdom killed her two children and stabbed her husband because she did not want him to take her kids, the Guardian reported.
She reportedly "erupted" into violence and also asked the police to give her a death penalty, jurors at the Nottingham crown were told. However, the accused -- Veronique John -- has been deemed unfit to plea.
She stabbed her two children aged seven and eleven because her husband was "going to take them" from her. Ethan -- her son -- was reportedly stabbed over 20 times and the daughter -- Elizabeth -- suffered brain damage. Following which she tracked own -- Nathan John -- her husband and stabbed him in the stomach.
Then she came home, called 999 and said, "I am calling to report I just killed my two kids," the report cited jurors as being told.
Later, the two kids were pronounced dead on the spot, while Nathan survived. When police arrived at Veronique's home in Stoke-on-Trent in June last year, she allegedly asked them to "shoot" her, adding that "I am not a monster - he was going to take them from me."
She had also been arrested on the previous day for assaulting her husband, whom she believed to be having an extra marital affair.
"It's something I was thinking about for a long time -- just kill myself and the kids. Unless you guys are offering me the death penalty, I have nothing else to say," Veronique was quoted as saying.
She told the police officers that she only did what she did to "protect" her children and said that she 100 per cent meant it when she said she wanted death penalty.
The prosecution told the court that Veronique -- working at a charity shop and born on the Caribbean island of St Vincent -- went on Google before killing her children and searched "Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?"
Veronique was charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder and another count of wounding. However, she has been deemed unfit to plead and is undergoing treatment at a secure facility.
Justice Choudhury, the judge, told the jurors that the accused was "unable to participate in the trial in any meaningful sense", adding that their task to decide whether she committed the acts of killing her children and injuring her husband Nathan.
Veronique's "rage was boiling just under the surface" on June 11 -- the day of the murder -- said prosecuting lawyer Peter Grieves-Smith. The remark came in reference to her hitting Nathan with a wooden slat the previous slat, following which she was arrested, questioned and released on the basis of a community resolution notice, the Guardian reported.
The couple had reportedly been undergoing some issues in their relationship with Veronique wanting her husband to have a phone without any internet connection.
Prosecution told the court that Veronique broke down after days of built up rage and ended up killing her children.
Ethan had a 17cm-long neck wound and declared dead in the bedroom of their house was Elizabeth was found lying in the living room with a blunt force trauma to her head and "three areas of sharp force" energy, including her stomach.
Veronique's trial is to be continued at the Nottingham crown court.
