Prosecutors rested their case after showing how Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bath, but US defence lawyers say Yates had severe postpartum psychosis and did not know the drownings were wrong.

Andrea Yates, the 37-year-old housewife who admitted she drowned her five children, has been convicted of murder by a US jury that rejected her claim of insanity.

Andrea Yates sobbed during her murder trial yesterday as prosecutors showed the jury in Houston, Texas, a picture of four of her drowned children on a bed and a video-tape of her fifth child floating face down in a bathtub.