A mother called 999 and told the operator “I have just killed my two children” after attacking them with a knife, a court was told.
Veronique John killed her daughter Elizabeth, seven, and Ethan, 11, because she didn’t want her husband to stay with them, prosecutors told Nottingham Crown Court.
Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence against children that some may find distressing
The facts hearing heard John stabbed Ethan more than 20 times and inflicted brain damage on his daughter Elizabeth, before heading to a car wash in his dressing gown to stab his partner Nathan John in the stomach.
She then returned home, dialed 999 and said: “I am calling to inform you that I have just killed my two children.”
The charity shop worker allegedly told police who arrived at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on June 11 last year: “If you have a gun, shoot me. I’m not a monster – he would take it away.” there from me.”
The day before the fatal attacks, John was arrested for attacking her husband with a piece of wood while their children were getting ready for bed. She allegedly suspected he was having an affair.
The court was told that John and her husband had experienced profound difficulties in their relationship and that she did not want him to have a phone with internet access.
Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said John’s “anger was boiling just below the surface” hours before the children were killed.
“What happened on June 11th didn’t come out of nowhere. Tensions built in the days before. That day she just exploded, killed her children and attacked Nathan,” he said.
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John killed his children hours after doing a “chilling” internet search asking: “Can a foreigner be charged with murder in the UK?” Grieves-Smith said.
Ethan was pronounced dead after being found in a bedroom with a 17cm long neck wound, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room, having suffered head trauma and “three areas of sharp force”, including to the stomach.
The jury was told that a neighbor heard “high-pitched screaming and crying that lasted for a while” a few minutes before John walked to the car wash where her husband spent the night.
The court heard how the 50-year-old later told interviewing officers: “I didn’t want my husband to catch them [the children].”
She continued: “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time – just killing myself and the kids. Unless you are offering me the death penalty, I have nothing more to say.
“I did it because I love my children – to protect them. If there’s any possible way I could be put to death, I would like that. I mean, 100%.”
John, of Flax Street, Stoke, is charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder and an alternative charge of wounding, but was found unfit to plead.
She is being treated in a secure hospital and was not in the dock to hear the Crown’s opening address.
The trial continues.
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