The Midlands has been left reeling from the shocking crimes committed by a series of killer mums. These women, who should have been the most trusted figures in their children’s lives, instead ended the lives of their children.
Over the past few years, a number of these tragic cases have resulted in prison sentences for the mothers involved. One such case involved a mother who brutally murdered her ten year old daughter as she slept.
The list includes Jin Xin Teo, A Coventry University student who hid newborn baby in a cereal box and then a bag. Here are some of the cases appearing before our courts over the last 12 months and in recent years.
Jia Xin Teo
Jia Xin Teo, a 22 year old student from Coventry, pictured above, hid her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on March 4. The infant was placed in a cereal box, then inside a sealable plastic bag, and finally into a suitcase.
By the time police found the baby two days later, she had died. Teo, originally from Malaysia, came to the UK earlier this year to study at Coventry University.
She denied murdering her child, claiming she heard voices instructing her to kill the baby. However, a jury dismissed this defence and convicted her of murder.
Following a hearing at Warwick Crown Court in October, she received a life sentence. She was ordered to serve a minimum term of 17 years.
Jaskirat Kaur also known as Jaskirat Kang
(Image: WMP)
Jaskirat Kang
Jaskirat Kang is one such mother who killed her ten year old daughter in their home while the child was sleeping earlier this year. Shay Kang was discovered dead at her Robin Close home on March 4.
Jaskirat Kaur, 33, from Rowley Regis, dialled emergency services to report her daughter’s death. Upon arrival, officers arrested Kaur, also known as ‘Jaskirat Kang’, who confessed to stabbing Shay the previous night, reports Birmingham Live.
A forensic post mortem examination revealed that Shay had been stabbed multiple times in the chest. Kaur was taken into custody and later charged with her daughter’s murder.
She pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at an earlier hearing and was subsequently sentenced to a hospital order in a secure facility.
Paris Mayo
(Image: West Mercia Police)
Paris Mayo
In another case, Paris Mayo, who was 15 at the time, killed her son hours after giving birth. She suffocated the boy by stuffing cotton wool into his throat.
Mayo delivered him alone at her family home in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, in March 2019 while her parents were upstairs. The court heard that she had assaulted her son Stanley, leaving him with injuries “comparable to those seen in a car crash.”
The newborn was later discarded in a bin bag and left on the doorstep, where he was discovered by Mayo’s mother the following day. Now 20, Mayo claimed she was unaware of her pregnancy and spoke of her challenging family life during the trial. Nevertheless, jurors at Worcester Crown Court found her guilty of murder with a majority verdict.
Mayo, from Ruardean in Gloucestershire, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison.
Laura Heath, Hakeem’s mother, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 20 years
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Laura Heath
A mother tragically neglected her seven year old son, leading to his death from an asthma attack. The trial judge described the incident as “needless, tragic and a result of (her) abject failure as his mother.”
Hakeem Hussain was discovered lifeless in the garden of a Nechells property on Cook Street in November 2017.
Laura Heath, Hakeem’s 42 year old mother, had consumed heroin before retiring for the night prior to Hakeem’s death. It is believed that Hakeem woke up during the night struggling to breathe and went outside where he experienced a severe exacerbation of his condition without access to his inhalers, Coventry Crown Court heard.
Throughout 2017, Heath mismanaged her son’s asthma as she prioritised her escalating addiction to Class A drugs, which she financed through sex work, theft, and borrowing money under false pretences, according to the trial. She also disengaged with social services and school staff who grew increasingly worried about the boy’s wellbeing.
Mr Justice Dove stated that Hakeem’s death was due to “catastrophic and deplorable” parenting as her life “entered a drug-fuelled downward spiral into squalor, chaos and tragedy.”
Heath was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter. She had previously admitted to four child cruelty offences, including two counts of “wilfully neglecting her son by failing to provide proper medical supervision in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health”, and two offences of “wilfully ill-treating Hakeem by exposing him to heroin and crack cocaine.”
She received a 20-year prison sentence.
Carla Scott
(Image: PA)
Carla Scott
Carla Scott, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her nine year old son Alfie Steele, who was discovered with 50 injuries on his body. The child had been subjected to beatings with belts, sliders, and flip-flops, as well as “more sinister forms of punishment.”
It was claimed he was forced into cold water baths while naked and made to stand outside in the middle of the night to be doused with cold water.
Alfie tragically passed away after police responded to an incident at his Droitwich home following reports that he had fallen asleep in the bath in February 2021. Carla Scott, 37, from Droitwich, was convicted of manslaughter, having been acquitted of murder, while her partner Dirk Howell, 43, also known as ‘Dean’, from Aston, was found guilty of the boy’s murder.
In addition to manslaughter, Scott was also found guilty of child cruelty offences, which Howell had previously admitted to. Scott was handed a total sentence of 27 years imprisonment for manslaughter and child cruelty, with a minimum term of 17 years.
Howell was sentenced to serve a minimum of 32 years behind bars.