The following story is edited from the BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/7631234.stm: 2008/09/23 14:33:28 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/7631734.stm: 2008/09/23 15:55:25 GMT
A 32-year-old woman has been found guilty of murdering her four-year-old disabled daughter.
Joanne Hill, from Connah's Quay, in Flintshire, had admitted drowning Naomi in the bath last year but denied murder due to diminished responsibility. Hill was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. Chester Crown Court was told she had been unable to cope with Naomi's mild cerebral palsy.
Naomi's father Simon Hill described his wife's actions as "evil".
During the two-week trial, the jury heard hard-drinking Hill was ashamed of Naomi's condition, which meant the little girl had to use callipers to help her walk.
Judge Elgan Edwards told Hill there was no excuse for what she did. He said the aggravating features in the case were the vulnerability of Naomi and the breach of trust between a mother and daughter. He said: "You killed your own daughter because you could not cope with her disability. You had other pressures upon you, a disintegrating marriage and you decided to kill your own daughter by drowning her."
Because of the murder conviction Hill will not return to a secure unit but go straight to prison, the judge said. He commented on Hill's "sad" history of mental health problems and said he hoped she would be transferred back to hospital very soon. He added: "This has been a very sad case. Sad for you, for your husband, for the child you killed. "There can be no excuse for what you did."
On 26 November, 2007, Hill collected Naomi from a child-minder and took her home. The court heard how Hill had run a bath, adding bubble bath and came down for a glass of wine. When the bath was full, Hill put her daughter in the bath and drowned her by holding her head under the water for up to 10 minutes. The post-mortem examination found Naomi had died by drowning and also found facial haemorrhages which pointed to the girl's head being forcibly held under water with her face against the surface of the bath. Hill then dressed the little girl and put her in her car together with a bottle of wine before her husband returned home from work. She then drove around for eight hours.
The following day, Hill arrived at the Countess of Chester Hospital with her dead daughter in her arms, shouting for help.
The court heard how it was unclear what Hill was doing in the eight hours leading up to her arrival at hospital with Naomi dead in her arms. Police established she visited a petrol station at about 2330 BST that night and the jury were shown CCTV footage of her smiling and joking with the sales assistant.
Speaking after Hill was convicted by a unanimous jury, her husband Simon said: "Joanne is a non-swimmer with a fear of water. To be held under water is her biggest fear. "What she did to my princess Naomi was evil. There's not a minute that goes by without me wishing that [Naomi] was still here. She was my constant companion, she was my best friend, she was my little princess."
Hill's mental health issues first became apparent in the early 1990s when, aged 17, she saw a child psychiatrist for anxiety and repetitive thoughts. In 2000, she attempted suicide and throughout the year she was prescribed a medication for anxiety, depression and sleeplessness. In January 2003, shortly before Naomi was born, Hill was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and immediately afterwards, suffered a severe form of post-natal depression.
In a statement North Wales NHS Trust said a full review was to be conducted under the control of the Flintshire Local Safeguarding Children's Board. "Until these formal processes have concluded it would be inappropriate for the trust to make any detailed comment and the trust is also bound by the rules of patient confidentiality," the statement read.
A spokeswoman for the disability charity Scope, which focuses on people with cerebral palsy, said they were "saddened and appalled by this case". "Naomi's death is a tragedy," Alice Maynard said. "However, this case raises the wider issue of how many disabled parents still don't get the support they need in bringing up children and how society continues to portray disability in a negative light, creating shame and stigma around impairment. "Tragically, in this instance, this combination of factors proved lethal."
The jury in the trial of Joanne Hill, who has been convicted of murdering her disabled daughter, had a crucial decision to make about the 32-year-old's state of mind.
Hill, of Connah's Quay, Flintshire had killed four-year-old Naomi but the jury had to decide whether she was ill on the day she killed her daughter.
The defence case rested on proving that Hill, who had a history of mental health problems, was suffering "an abnormality of mind" when she drowned Naomi in the bath.
But Michael Chambers QC, for the prosecution, said Mrs Hill's behaviour in the months and days leading up to the killing had been considered normal and rational.
He said Hill should be found guilty of murder, rather than manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, because she had made a "deliberate and conscious" decision to kill her daughter.
Naomi was disabled, having mild cerebral palsy, and Hill could not cope with it, claimed the prosecution.
But deciding whether somebody is mentally ill at a particular time is a complex task.
During the trial at Chester Crown Court, Dr Aideen O'Halloran, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, said Hill's behaviour in the weeks leading up to Naomi's death indicated she was having a relapse of her mental health condition.
The court was told Hill had a history of mental health problems which first became apparent in the early 1990s when she was 17 years old and saw a child psychiatrist for anxiety and repetitive thoughts.
In 2000, Hill twice attempted suicide and throughout the year she was prescribed medication for anxiety, depression and sleeplessness.
In January 2003, shortly before the birth of Naomi, Hill was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and the following April, she had a "hypermanic" episode.
After Naomi was born ten weeks prematurely in a "difficult" birth, Hill suffered a severe form of postnatal depression, although she did respond to treatment.
On Boxing Day 2006 she suffered a severe relapse and left the family home to be cared for by her parents.
Once again Hill recovered, returning to work part-time in the March and full-time a month later.
In June, doctors decided there was no need for further involvement by her local Mental Health Team and in August her case was closed, although she remained under the care of her GP and on several types of medication.
In November, it was recorded that she was drinking heavily, increasing the risk of depression and the likelihood that she would stop taking her medicine.
Later that month she killed Naomi.
Dr O'Halloran concluded that Hill was suffering from depression and was able to "disassociate" her feelings, a combination that was "an abnormality of the mind" in her view.
But Dr Paul Chesterman, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told the jury Hill's actions had not suggested a mental disorder at the time of the killing last year.
Hill had enjoyed a night out and had sex with a workmate on the Thursday before Naomi was killed, behaviour that Dr Chesterman said was "incompatible" with clinical depression.
Away from the trial, Gordon Huntley from the charity Wrexham Mind office sympathised with the jury's difficult task.
"When it comes to mental health it's far more difficult. When it's a physical illness, it's quite visible," he said.
"With mental health it's not quite so easy because the person doesn't necessarily understand what's going on themselves.
"It can be really difficult for jurors to come to any sort of understanding, let alone decision, about why somebody might want to do something like that."
And the complexity of the issue can lead to very different conclusions, even from experts, about a person's state of mind.
"I don't always agree with some of my colleagues in health on occasions," said Mr Huntley.
"I work closely with them and I'm quite friendly with a number but they do face quite difficult decisions in terms of what is happening to an individual.
"'What diagnosis do I give them and therefore what treatment can I give them or is available, is it the right one?'
"It's quite difficult and can be quite a lonely position for them to carry that burden."
Mr Huntley said it was also incredibly difficult to predict whether somebody with a history of serious mental health problems was likely to commit an extreme act.
"The stigma that people face with mental health issues is significant but it's not warranted, but unfortunately there are incidents that lead to tragic circumstances," he said.
"While for the vast majority, that's not the case, there are some of those events and sometimes people fall through the gaps."
