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Mother kills autistic son by forcing him to drink bleach
A mother killed her 12-year-old son by forcing him to drink bleach because she feared social services would take him away.
1:13PM GMT 15 Nov 2010
Satpal Kaur-Singh, 44, killed 12-year-old Ajit hours after she attended a social services meeting when she was warned he would be taken into care because of concerns about her parenting skills. At the Old Bailey she pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and could face a life sentence.
The court heard that although social workers had questioned her mental state at the time, she had been calm throughout the meeting and they raised no "concerns about her immediate behaviour". But within nine hours she had forced Ajit to drink Domestos from a cup but after drinking the disinfectant herself changed her mind and called the emergency services saying "I've just murdered my son and I've tried to kill myself."
Police and paramedics rushed to her east London home and found Ajit lying on his back on the sofa with his eyes closed and his right arm hanging down by his side, surrounded by vomit just after 10.30 at night. His Manchester-born mum was on the floor holding a phone to her ear and a cup of bleach close to hand. Kaur-Singh said she had given Ajit the bleach two hours earlier and then she drank a cup and a half of Domestos an hour later on February 9 of this year telling an officer "I couldn't cope any more.".
Both were rushed to hospital and where she told doctors: "Today I just couldn't take any more. I looked after him for 12 years. This shouldn't have happened to him. They shouldn't have been taking away my child." Police searching the home in Lambourne Road, Barking, also found a suicide note Kaur-Singh had written to her sister who described her as "being a loving mother and someone who would do anything for her child."
It read: "Please burn us together. If you people did not let us stay alive peacefully, then maybe we can be together when we are dead." Doctors battled to save Ajit's life but little could be done and he died an hour later. He had caustic burns around his mouth, chin, neck and chest and his lungs had been damaged causing "severe respiratory impairment." Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC told the Old Bailey: "This is a case of great tragedy. It involves the killing of a 12-year-old autistic boy by his mother.
"She did so because she felt she was the only person who could care for him and she feared the social services were going to obtain an interim care order, which may result in him being taken away from her." Describing Ajit he added: "He found communication difficult with no or very little use of speech and occasional gestures. Although he was independently mobile while indoors, he was less so outside.
"He could not tolerate crowded places or noisy environments, he would cover his ears and scream. He needed assistance with his personal hygiene. He had no sense of danger. "Social services had been engaged in many child protection conferences which the defendant did not attend many of them, but plainly she attended some." Kaur-Singh had also made numerous complaints about neighbours, school staff, other parents, and social workers with one neighbour described her as "blowing everything out of proportion and not being capable of talking reasonably with anybody.
"It was, as a neighbour put it, as if everyone was persecuting her." On the day she killed Ajit, Kaur-Singh had attended a meeting at the Children's Disability Team with in Barking and Dagenham's social services. Mr Whittam added: "Issues were raised about this defendant's lack of involvement with social services, her care of her child and potential issues of neglect. "This defendant responded by stating she had no difficulties with her parenting ability and only she understood her child. She said she got stressed by the social services 'stressing her.'
"The team manager raised the issue of Satpal undergoing psychiatric assessment, that was something she refused to do. "That refusal brought the initial part of the meeting to an end as she was no longer co-operating and an interim care order was going to be sought." Kaur-Singh also refused to undergo a parenting capacity assessment or allow her child to have a paediatric assessment. He said: "Again this defendant refused, responding in effect by saying she was not mad and neither she nor her child was going to be labelled and that social services were not going to take her child.
"The meeting concluded because there appeared to be no purpose in continuing. This defendant appeared to those present to be calm throughout and did not leave any of those with any concerns about her immediate behaviour." When seen by doctors Kaur-Singh showed "no signs of depression, anxiety, psychotic illness or mental illness" and did not need to be sectioned. She was initially charged with murder but psychiatrists for both the defence and the prosecution agreed at the time of the killing she had an abnormality of the mind.
Today at the start of her trial, Kaur-Singh pleaded guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. Sentence was adjourned until December 13 for more tests to determine if her mental illness is treatable as experts were divided. One psychiatrist concluded she was suffering from chronic post traumatic stress disorder which is treatable while another said she suffered from a "paranoid personality disorder" which is untreatable.
