Mother who killed 'was psychotic' illne

A mother found dead in pool after stabbing her three children was suffering from mental illness, an inquest was told yesterday.

The South Norfolk Coroner, Andrew Barker, recorded an open verdict on Joy Senior, aged 29, and verdicts of unlawful killing on her children Kurtis, 7, Cherelle, 5, and Clinton, 3. They were were stabbed at Ms Senior's home in Thetford, Norfolk, in May. Ms Senior's body was found face down in a pool in a wood several miles away. She had slashed her wrists and throat, but died from drowning.

The coroner said that although Ms Senior had switched on the gas at her home, slashed herself and crashed her car, he could not rule out the possibility that she had fallen into the pool and died accidentally.

A statement read to the inquest at Diss in Norfolk from a psychiatrist, Christopher Mayer, said Ms Senior - who attended a Seventh Day Adventist church - had become a "deep-thinking paranoid individual" and was the victim of an acute psychosis. Part of her illness involved an obsession with her former boyfriend Sean Sutherland, whom she believed had supernatural powers.

Ms Senior's brother-in-law, Michael Mitchell, told the hearing that Mr Sutherland had convinced her he would win the first draw in the lottery but only if she kept the news a secret.

When he did not win, Ms Senior became unhappy and appeared to blame herself for talking about the draw before it happened. Mr Mitchell denied, however, that she had ever been depressed.

Mr Sutherland, a baker from Brandon, Suffolk, denied suggesting he had supernatural powers, claiming Ms Senior came to this conclusion on her own. "There were certain events that she read more into," he said. "She thought I was some kind of guardian angel, but I kept telling her I'm just a normal person."

Asked by the coroner if he had any final comments on the tragedy, Mr Sutherland said: "It is very easy to blame the Seventh Day Adventists but I do feel there are some outside forces which have caused her to be like this. I knew her as a very happy, lovely person."