Mother who drowned her two young sons found guilty of murder

A mother who drowned her two young sons in the bath and left the bodies in a bunk bed for their father to find has been found guilty of murder.

Kara Alexander, 47, killed two-year-old Elijah Thomas and Marley Thomas, 5, in the bath at their home in, Dagenham, east London, in December 2022. 

She claimed it was 'an accident' but after deliberating for six hours and 54 minutes, the jury at Kingston Crown Court found Alexander guilty of two counts of murder.

Selvin Thomas, who had split up with Alexander three months earlier, was due to have the boys that weekend and was worried as he had not received any messages or calls from Alexander.

When he arrived at their home Alexander, who was wearing a hoodie, said they were upstairs sleeping and slammed the door in his face.

Mr Thomas demanded she open the door and when she did he found 'a bunch of toys behind it as if barricading the door', said prosecutor Philip Evans, KC.

He then ran to his sons' bedroom and found their bodies lying side-by-side on their lower bunk bed. By the time the horrified father ran downstairs Alexander had fled.

She was arrested about an hour later and later claimed she had left the boys in the bath alone while she smoked cannabis.

Alexander accepted at trial that she had placed them in the bath before they 'accidentally' drowned.

Mr Evans said: 'They were bunched up together and it looked like they were asleep.

'They had the duvet up to their shoulders, only their faces were visible. He touched Marley's face, on his right cheek, and he was freezing cold and hard. 

'He knew immediately that they were dead and thought they had been dead for some time.

'Such exposure could have occurred from being in an enclosed space where cannabis was being smoked in the hours leading up to death.' 

Alexander had been in contact with 'at least two suppliers of cannabis and regularly bought cannabis from those suppliers during this period.'

She admitted two charges of gross negligence manslaughter by breaching the duty of care she owed her sons but the prosecution did not accept her pleas.

She denied but was convicted of two counts of murder by a jury at Kingston Crown Court.

Mr Justice Bennathan said: 'Ladies and gentleman of the jury I am not going to pass sentence today, I want to have up to date psychiatric reports and I want the wider family to have a chance to make statements.'

The judge set a provisional sentencing date for April 11.

'This has been a particularly tragic and sad case and I anticipate it has taken a strain on everyone in the court,' the judge said

Marley and Elijah, also known as Teddy, had previously lived with Alexander and Mr Thomas in Hackney before they split up and she moved to Dagenham with the boys.

Mr Thomas found his sons' bodies on their shared bunk bed on 16 December 2022.

He ran downstairs screaming 'Kara, Kara, Kara. What the f---? You've killed my children.'

Alexander was nowhere to be seen and Mr Thomas dialled 999.

During the call played to the jury he said: 'She killed my children'; 'I've come here to check on them, she slammed the door in my face, I said "You need to open the door or I'll call the police", so she let me in.

'I said "Where are the children?" she said "They're in bed", so I've gone to check on my children.

'She's run across, now she's running to a neighbour's house, jumped the fence, my children are dead, they're dead.

'They're both in the bottom bunk freezing cold. She's lost her mind and I don't know what she's done, she's killed both my little boys.'

Mr Thomas then told a man outside: 'She's knows I'm going to kill her. For no reason, for no reason, for no reason bruv, they're two years old and five years old bro.'

Mr Evans told the court: 'Their deaths had instead been caused, in each case, by an interference with the normal mechanics of their breathing through smothering or immersion in water.

'The ambulance service and police attended, there was nothing that could be done for the boys they were very clearly dead and had been for some hours.'

There was no sign that anyone else other than Alexander had entered or been in the house, the court heard.

'The defendant had run away through gardens into a neighbouring street,' added Mr Evans.

'She was arrested about an hour or so later and was taken to the police station where her detention was authorised.

'The prosecution understands at this stage that Kara Alexander denies killing her two children in the sense that she did nothing to interfere with the normal mechanics of their breathing, whether through smothering or immersion in water.

'She denies intending to kill them or intending them serious harm, or indeed any harm.

'The prosecution case is that, if a person smothers or immerses a young child in water, the very least intention that person must have is to cause really serious harm to that child.

'This is all the more so where there are two children killed.'

Alexander's barrister Jeremy Dein KC had earlier argued the defence of diminished responsibility should be open to her due to an acute and transient psychotic disorder.