Читать книгу Parents Who Kill - Shocking True Stories of The World's Most Evil Parents - Carol Anne Davis - Страница 13

Though her father was a millionaire and she benefited from private schooling in England, Emma had her share of childhood misery. Her Swedish-born mother was an alcoholic and her father was frequently away on business trips. It was his second marriage and he would go on to marry for a third time.

By the age of 13, Emma was clinically depressed. She was outwardly obedient and passive but deeply disturbed. After leaving school, she went to Edinburgh University to study English and drama, but dropped out after a year and tried to commit suicide. Though she recovered physically and, for a time, mentally (most mental illness is episodic, as the sufferer lacks the strategies to cope with stressful life events) she didn’t return to complete her course.

In 1994 when she was 19, she became pregnant by her student boyfriend but concealed the pregnancy. He only became aware of the baby after she gave birth in a London hospital. Both families agreed that the best thing was to give the baby up for adoption, but Emma was deeply distressed by this and spent hours preparing a ‘life book’ for the infant that she was giving up.

The following year she became pregnant again. Her boyfriend, who was still a student, begged her to have an abortion and she told him that she had done so. They split up and her mental health deteriorated markedly. She secretly continued the pregnancy, hiding it from staff at the florists where she worked.

In May 1996, she gave birth to a baby boy whilst alone in the bathroom of her Kensington flat. She took him into the lounge and attempted to breast feed him, but couldn’t. She’d later explain that he was coughing and didn’t look well. She fell asleep and awoke the following day with the baby, still breathing, beside her. She phoned her work and said that she couldn’t come in, but didn’t tell them why. Bleeding heavily and again suicidal, she smothered the baby with a flannel, a pillow and clothes.

Emma went to work the following day, then phoned her older brother Kris and said that she wanted to kill herself. He immediately drove to her flat to collect her and brought her back with him to his home in Kent. He had no inkling that the plastic bag she was clutching contained the corpse of her infant son. The following day she returned home and put the tiny body in her freezer then continued her normal life.

A few weeks later, Emma’s brother found the frozen cadaver and the young woman made a full confession to the police, saying ‘I was afraid. I didn’t want people to know that I was pregnant. I didn’t know what to do.’ They could see that she was mentally disturbed and were sympathetic. She also showed genuine remorse.

On 21 December 1996, her 60-year-old father accompanied her to The Old Bailey where she was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to receive psychiatric counselling. The judge was understanding, remarking on the lonely birth and adding ‘this is not something which should be allowed to cloud your entire future.’ He warned her against having further children whilst under the supervision order and the defence reassured him that she had been fitted with an IUD contraceptive device.