The mother arrested for suffocating her three handicapped children claimed that she was trying help them by “putting end to their suffering.”
Tania Clarence, 42, apparently showed signs of being mentally ill prior to the slaughtering. Her children, Ben Max and Olivia Clarence, all suffered from type 2 spinal muscular atrophy.
Her husband and oldest daughter were outside of the country during the attack.
Three notes were found that were pivotal to deciding her mental state. Before attempting suicide, Clarence wrote on the first note “Gary, don’t let [their eldest daughter] go into the kids’ bedroom or our bedroom.”
The second note read, “Gary, I don’t want to be saved?” The third letter stated “please, I can’t live with the horror of what I have done. I thought the pills would work. They didn’t.”
Clarence’s defense attorney, Jim Sturman QC, argued that his client was suffering from a mental disturbance at the time of the incident.
Sturman tells the court, “Mrs. Clarence was suffering from an abnormality of the mind during the offending. She was manifesting stress throughout the life of the children by their suffering and caring for three children with this condition was exhausting, distressing, debilitating and turned out to be overwhelming.”
Do you feel about this murder trial should being revoked? Is it injustice to the three children that suffered horrible deaths?
