Mum who drowned twins in bath after husband left jailed for 10 years

Samantha Ford has been jailed for 10 years after killing her twins as ‘punishment’ for her husband Steven leaving (Picture: PA)

A depressed mother who drowned her ‘miracle’ twins in the bath ‘to punish’ her husband for leaving has been jailed for 10 years.

Samantha Ford, 38, of Margate, Kent, killed 23-month-old Jake and Chloe – who were born through IVF – on Boxing Day, last year.

A court heard how after Ford committed the crime, she ‘dressed them, dried them and placed them back in their beds’ with ‘their bodies facing away from each other towards the wall.’

Ford then wrote a suicide note and attempted to kill herself by driving into a lorry at around 100mph hours later in Margate, Kent, heard a court.

When police managed to open the doors of her vehicle, she told them: ‘I’ve killed my babies.

Please let me die. ‘I put them in the bath. We were meant to be together. I was going to jump off a cliff but it’s too dark.’

A court heard how Ford had become obsessed with losing her ‘perfect life’ in Qatar, which she had enjoyed with husband Steven.

Heartbroken Steven, who attended a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, described her actions as the ‘ultimate punishment’.

Jake and Chloe were drowned in the bath at 23 months old (Picture: PA)

Steve Ford, father of Chloe and Jake Ford, described it as ‘the ultimate punishment’ (Picture: PA)

His wife admitted two counts of manslaughter by diminished responsibility, saying in a letter read to the court: ‘I’m in torment.

The fact they are not alive because of me is the hardest part of all.’

Psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph told the court Ford had feelings of ‘anger and betrayal’ towards her estranged husband and ‘wanting revenge’ when she killed their children.

Earlier, prosecutor Tom Kark QC had told how the couple had lived in Qatar for the first 10 years of their marriage but their relationship soured after they left their affluent lifestyle in the Middle East and moved to Charing in Kent in 2018.

Before their split, Ford had told her husband: ‘You have ripped my world apart now we are nothing but a miserable, broken family growing up in a s***hole.’

Relatives said Ford’s mental health declined rapidly following the separation, and she sent multiple text messages to her estranged husband trying to persuade him to return to her, the court heard.

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