Mother cleared of attempting to murder children
A court in Malmö has cleared a woman of charges of trying to poison and kill her three young children by mixing their fizzy drinks with sleeping pills.
Malmö District Court elected to clear the 33-year-old mother on the basis that there was reasonable doubt as to whether her actions had posed a concrete danger to the children, Aftonbladet reports.
After three months of treatment for depression at a psychiatric institution, the 33-year-old woman moved back in with her three children - aged 12, 10 and 7 - on April 28th last year.
The following night, while her children slept, she ground down an estimated 90 sleeping pills, sedatives and paracetemol and added them to a glass of Påskmust, a Swedish fizzy drink consumed around Easter.
When she was finished in the kitchen she woke the children and told them to drink the concoction.
"Mamma said that we should drink it to make us feel healthy in the morning," said the woman's seven-year-old daughter, according to Aftonbladet.
But, finding the poisonous brew "disgusting", the children did not ingest more than a sip each.
Though she has no recollection of her actions that night, the 33-year-old supposes that she intended to kill her children before taking her own life.
"I probably just wanted to disappear. But since my children are all I have, and all I have ever had, I probably wanted to take them with me," she said.
The court was not able to recover a sample of the cocktail to test its potency and could not say for sure whether the children's lives were at risk.
Comments
See Also
Malmö District Court elected to clear the 33-year-old mother on the basis that there was reasonable doubt as to whether her actions had posed a concrete danger to the children, Aftonbladet reports.
After three months of treatment for depression at a psychiatric institution, the 33-year-old woman moved back in with her three children - aged 12, 10 and 7 - on April 28th last year.
The following night, while her children slept, she ground down an estimated 90 sleeping pills, sedatives and paracetemol and added them to a glass of Påskmust, a Swedish fizzy drink consumed around Easter.
When she was finished in the kitchen she woke the children and told them to drink the concoction.
"Mamma said that we should drink it to make us feel healthy in the morning," said the woman's seven-year-old daughter, according to Aftonbladet.
But, finding the poisonous brew "disgusting", the children did not ingest more than a sip each.
Though she has no recollection of her actions that night, the 33-year-old supposes that she intended to kill her children before taking her own life.
"I probably just wanted to disappear. But since my children are all I have, and all I have ever had, I probably wanted to take them with me," she said.
The court was not able to recover a sample of the cocktail to test its potency and could not say for sure whether the children's lives were at risk.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.