Читать книгу Parents Who Kill - Shocking True Stories of The World's Most Evil Parents - Carol Anne Davis - Страница 21

A Newcastle barmaid, Danielle had a history of failed relationships which had included violence. She was known to social services and to mental health charities.

When she was 20, she found out that she was expecting her first child – her sister-in-law would later say that she’d deliberately become pregnant in order to hold on to her new boyfriend, 22-year-old Robert Gallon. But, a few weeks later she said that she wanted a termination; that she couldn’t cope with a child. Her boyfriend looked shocked and talked her out of it, promising that they would be a family. He had already fathered a son, now two, that he didn’t see because the mother had moved away, but he liked the idea of fatherhood.

The couple moved in together and Danielle gave up work but she called Robert so often at the building site where he worked that his boss became furious. She bombarded his family with phone calls and texts and wanted to know where he was at every moment of the day, often accusing him of being with other women. She also phoned various Newcastle pubs asking if he was there and telling the bar staff to send him home. She went on drinking binges throughout the pregnancy and became deeply depressed, professing that she no longer had a life.

In March 2005 she gave birth to a son, Alexander, but was unable to cope with his crying and sent texts to her boyfriend repeatedly asking for him to come home from work and help out. When he couldn’t, she alternated between tears and threats. She went to her doctor and told him how useless she felt and he was sympathetic, explaining that she had all of the symptoms of post-natal depression. He prescribed anti-depressants but she only took them for 10 days, later saying that they had made her feel drowsy and that she was afraid that she would fall asleep whilst bathing the child.