Care in community mother stabbed girl

A woman being treated under the care in the community programme tried to strangle and stab her daughter after hearing "abusive voices in her head", the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Regina Fasuyi, 32, who has been "cared for in the community" since 1985, chased her daughter Adanma, 10, around a kitchen table brandishing a knife. Her four-year-old brother witnessed the attack.

The attack in June 1995 was the second violent assault that Mrs Fasuyi had made on her daughter, the court was told. An attack in September 1991 in which she tried to strangle the girl resulted in Mrs Fasuyi returning to hospital and her children being put into the care of her mother. But it was not long before she was again spending time alone with the children, despite concerns over her mental state.

Sally O'Neill, for the prosecution, told the court that on the day of the attack Adanma had called the police for help, but when they arrived they found her slumped, blood-stained, on the stairway with,Mrs Fasuyi standing over her, holding a kitchen knife. None of the wounds were life- threatening.

Mrs Fasuyi, formerly of Woolwich, south-east London, denied attempted murder, but admitted wounding. She was ordered to be detained under the Mental Health Act. The judge said: "It is necessary for the protection of the public that she be subject to a restriction without time or limit."