Depressed mother escapes jail for killing baby

LONDON - A British mother suffering from postnatal depression has been spared a prison sentence for killing her four-month-old son in a fire.

Danielle Wails, 22, who had attempted to hide her crime by claiming intruders had tied her up and set fire to her flat in Newcastle upon Tyne, received three years' probation after she admitted infanticide.

A court heard that Wails had probably staged the fire in order to win back the child's father, from whom she had split.

Two psychiatrists agreed at court that the single mother was suffering from postnatal depression and that the balance of her mind was disturbed at the time of the killing, in August last year.

After the case police said that Wails had never shown any real grief or remorse over the death of her son Alexander.

Following the fire police launched a manhunt for the two men who Wails falsely claimed had attacked her in the two-bedroomed terrace house and then tied her up with telephone cord.

She told detectives she had been knocked unconscious and when she awoke, the lounge was alight trapping her son.

She said that she had used her tongue to dial 999 and shouted through the letterbox to neighbours, begging them to try and save the baby.

Wails, who had split from the baby's father Robert Gallon after a series of rows, was living in accommodation provided by a charity which helps single mothers in the Cowgate area of the city.

But her story unravelled when detectives discovered that batteries had been taken out of the smoke alarms, that the front door key was hidden inside the flat, and Wails appeared to have tied her own wrists.

She was charged with Alexander's murder, but on the first day of the trial at Newcastle Crown Court in August, Wails' guilty plea to the lesser charge of infanticide was accepted by the prosecution.

Prosecutor Paul Sloan QC told the court yesterday that neighbours heard Wails shouting through the letterbox: "My house is on fire. My baby, my baby."

The baby was taken to hospital, but pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

He had suffered severe burns, while his mother had suffered only minor bruises and grazes.

The court heard that Wails was suffering from postnatal depression and had been diagnosed with the symptoms in the months before the killing.

Wails falsely told people that Alexander was ill and needed hospital treatment.

In the months before her son's death, she also told friends she had been attacked in Newcastle city centre and had lost twins and triplets.

After Alexander's death, it emerged Wails had been bombarding Mr Gallon and his family with phone calls and text messages in a futile bid to reconcile their relationship.

Mr Sloan told the court: "It would seem that the underlying purpose behind these false claims was to win back her partner's sympathies and support."

Brian Forster QC, defending, said the defendant was living with Alexander in a small house with no one else, apart from her parents, to rely on.

"In the end she saw no way, no future for herself or for her child and this terrible incident, wicked as it was, came about," he added.

Wails was sentenced to a three-year Community Order, which includes three years' probation and residence at a bail hostel.

She was also banned from working with children indefinitely.

Speaking outside court, Detective Superintendent Barbara Franklin, who led the murder inquiry, said: "The [killing] of baby Alexander was a callous and carefully planned event - from the removal of the batteries in smoke alarms, to the hiding of door keys in a laundry basket.

"Danielle has never shown any real grief or remorse over the death of her baby."

- INDEPENDENT