Triple baby killer’s sentence extended

A WOMAN who finally confessed to murdering her three babies yesterday had her sentence extended by a British court.

Maxine Robinson, 36, who the court heard was made to feel inadequate by her domineering mother, was more than eight years into a life sentence for murdering 19-month-old Christine and Anthony, aged five months, when she confessed to smothering her first-born daughter, Victoria, in 1989.

She was found guilty of the first two murders at a trial in Sheffield Crown Court in 1995.

Robinson had been due to be eligible for parole in December next year. However, Mr Justice Clarke, sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, yesterday recommended she should serve a further three years.

It emerged yesterday that Robinson has been sterilised since killing Christine and Anthony at her home in Ouston, Co Durham.

During rehabilitation sessions at Durham Prison, Robinson first confessed to killing the two children from her marriage to second husband, Peter.

In later sessions, she admitted smothering Victoria with a deflated balloon.

In interviews with police she said she was unable to cope with Victoria, had been depressed and was criticised by her mother.

Her first child was from her marriage to Les Cope, whom she wed after a three-week romance.

They divorced shortly after nine-month-old Victoria’s death.

Aidan Marron QC, prosecuting, said she told police her mother made her feel inadequate.

“I felt she was the mother and I was only allowed to be there, and even then it was begrudgingly,” she said.

Franz Muller QC, defending, added: “She was very much under the influence and indeed, domination of her mother.

“She felt nothing she did has been good enough for her mother and that stifled her development into a normal, mature, responsible adult. She felt Victoria was on loan and she (the baby) actually belonged to her mother,” he told the court.

Outside court a family supporter, who did not wish to be named, said Robinson’s mother Ann Leggett, was a former nanny. “Her mother was justifiably worried about the welfare of the child,” the wellwisher said.

Robinson had always maintained her innocence, and campaigners highlighted her case as a possible miscarriage of justice.

Mr Muller said even after her guilty plea in April this year, Robinson continued to receive correspondence from people telling her she was innocent. He said his client had been told the plea of diminished responsibility was available to her, but she had declined.

He said Robinson had been overwhelmed by the pressures of childcare.

The judge said the case was a “timely” reminder that “not all mothers in prison for killing their own children are the victims of miscarriages of justice”.