Jury concludes that mother inflicted injuries on her two young children that resulted in death

A mother inflicted fatal injuries on her daughter and son (aged 7 and 11) and also unlawfully stabbed the father in the stomach, a jury found.

Veronique John was absent from Nottingham Crown Court as a jury at a fact-finding hearing found her responsible for unlawfully causing injuries in attacks that the prosecution described as “almost too gruesome to imagine”.

Her daughter Elizabeth was pronounced dead at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on June 11 last year, suffering a fractured skull and stab wounds, while the 50-year-old’s son suffered over 20 stab wounds.

John, who has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder as well as personality and depressive disorders, was declared incompetent to confess or participate in the trial.

She is being treated at the high-security Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire and, following the jury’s decision, faces an indefinite inpatient commitment.

In hearing the facts, the jury was not required to reach verdicts of guilt or acquittal on the murder and attempted murder charges; instead, the panel was required to decide whether John “committed the acts with which she was accused.”

After five days of evidence, the jury at Nottingham Crown Court took about 40 minutes to reach its unanimous decision.

The court was told that there had been outbreaks of violence at John’s home in Flax Street, Stoke, because she did not want her husband Nathan John to have their children.

She then went to a car wash where she tried to stab him in the stomach.

When he got home, John dialled 999 and told the operator: “I’m calling to report that I have just killed my two children.”

The charity shop worker told police after her arrest: “If you have a gun, shoot me. I’m not a monster – he wanted to take it away from me.”

John, who was reportedly seething with anger after being arrested for assaulting her husband because she suspected him of having an affair, later said in an interview: “I thought about it for a long time – just killing myself and the children. If you don’t offer me the death penalty, I have nothing else to say.”

“I did it because I love my children – to protect the children. If there was any possibility that I would be executed, that would be good. When I say that, I’m not joking. I mean it 100%.”

She further claimed that she could not remember the nature and number of injuries inflicted on the children.

Ethan was pronounced dead after being found in a bedroom, while Elizabeth was discovered in the living room, suffering from traumatic brain injury and “sharp force injuries in three locations,” including her abdomen.

Medical efforts to save the children, both of whom had suffered neck injuries, were “futile” due to the severity of their injuries, the court said.

The judge had ruled that John, who did not want to plead insanity, was not competent to stand trial after psychiatrists told her that she was “very mentally ill” and unable to follow the proceedings.

Judge Choudhury will conclude the case against John, who came to the UK nine years ago and has no previous convictions, later on Monday.