Sister of spurned wife tells of childhood violence
Sabeya Uddin said their English mother called them “little black bastards” and scrubbed them with bleach.
Salmon, 43, of Great Shefford, Berks, denies murdering her husband’s lover Lorna Stewart, 36, by shooting her twice with a shotgun.
She told the court she was badly affected by a childhood with a mother who was violent and worked as a prostitute.
Mrs Uddin, 42, said: “Rena got a bit more because she was darker. She got more scouring powder on her.
“Everytime you got a bath, she used to scrub you with a big scrubbing brush and the bleach would sting.
“Rena kept getting battered and she got called a black bastard all the time, a half-cast bastard.
“It did her head in. She was really ashamed of being coloured.”
The sisters were born in Birmingham and brought up in Burnley until they were taken into care when they were 12 and 13.
Mrs Uddin told the court they had different Asian fathers.
She had not seen her mother for 17 years but had brief contact about a year ago.
Holloway prison psychiatrist Dr Helen Whitworth told the court she believed Salmon displayed signs of mental illness at the age of 13.
This included bingeing, laxative abuse and temper tantrums which involved destroying her possessions.
Dr Whitworth said Salmon talked about suicide when she saw her in Holloway prison and had been put on a round-the-clock watch in case she tried to harm herself.
Salmon told her of a suicide pact she had tried to make with her two children.
Asked for her reaction, Dr Whitworth told the court: “She has a depressive illness. Suicide ideas are much more common in people with depression and children are often regarded as an extension of themselves.”
Salmon told the psychiatrist of a phone call she received from Miss Stewart, who had told her: “I just want you to know I am really happy with Paul. “We are trying for a baby. If we have one, I will stay home and look after it because it will look like us.”
Dr Whitworth said Salmon thought this was a racial slur as both her husband and Miss Stewart were white.
“She is very sensitive that she is of mixed race and she took that badly.
“That sort of comment would hit home. She was already depressed. It would have worsened her mood.”
Salmon said she had vivid recollections about what happened in the salon. The trial continues.
