Читать книгу Parents Who Kill - Shocking True Stories of The World's Most Evil Parents - Carol Anne Davis - Страница 23

That evening, she laid her four-month-old-son on the settee and set fire to an armchair in the room with her cigarette lighter. As the flames took hold, she phoned 999 from her mobile and screamed at the operator to save her baby, saying that he was at the other side of the lounge from her and that they were separated by a wall of flames. The horrified operator could hear little Alexander shrieking as the fire spread. Tearing the cord from the landline, Danielle Wails used it to tie her wrists then ran into the hall and began screaming for help through the letterbox.

Firefighters kicked in the door and put out the flames whilst an ambulance took her, and her badly burnt baby, to hospital. There she was questioned by police and told them that two masked men had burst into the house, kicked the baby and punched her in the face. She’d regained consciousness to find herself tied up and the house on fire, and had only managed to phone 999 by using her tongue to press the buttons on her mobile phone.

Within hours, Robert was informed by Danielle’s mother about the fire. Police confirmed that the baby had died of his injuries and he went to Danielle to comfort her. The couple reconciled and went to stay at her parents’ house.

For the next three days, Danielle was almost constantly in tears and Robert and her family were hugely sympathetic. Police spent these three days searching for the intruders and investigating the supposed crime scene. Danielle had said that the intruders had locked her in – but they found her key in the laundry basket. The fire alarm had been checked by the charity the previous week, yet now the batteries were found in a kitchen drawer. She said that she hadn’t heard the intruders enter the premises because the radio was playing, but no radio was found at the property. She’d described how the men had viciously knocked her unconscious, yet she had only light bruising to her face.

It was clearly a fabrication, so police arrested her on suspicion of deliberately starting the fire and murdering her son. She vehemently denied this throughout hours of questioning, was charged and remanded in custody. Several of the other female prisoners hissed ‘child killer’ at her in prison and she was put into isolation for her own safety: ironically, women who have abused and neglected their own children are the prisoners who are most likely to attack a mother who has killed, as it’s easier for them to scapegoat someone else than to examine their own shortcomings.