Baker girls’ murders prompt inquiry

AN inquiry was under way last night to examine the roles played by teachers, doctors and social workers in the years leading up to the killings of Davina and Jasmine Baker.

Rekha Kumari-Baker stabbed her two daughters to death as they slept in their beds and was convicted of murder yesterday.

Kumari-Baker told teachers that she “wished Davina dead” three years before she stabbed her daughters.

Social workers also worked with Kumari-Baker and Davina andKumari-Baker had regularly seen doctors and complained of depression in the years before the killings.

The inquiry involves education, social services and health authorities involved with Kumari-Baker.

The trial heard that teachers at Davina’s former school – Impington Village College – had a number of concerns about the youngster and held several meetings with Kumari-Baker.

Jurors were also told by a GP that concerns had been raised about Kumari-Baker’s mental health.

The waitress had admitted the manslaughter of Davina Baker, 16, and Jasmine Baker, 13, on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but had denied murder.

But a jury convicted her of two counts of murder at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday.

Kumari-Baker killed the girls with two kitchen knives as they slept in bedrooms at her home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, on June 13, 2007.

Prosecutors said she carried out the murders to “wreak havoc” on ex-husband David Baker.

Her lawyers argued that she was suffering from an “abnormality of mind” which would make her guilty of manslaughter but not murder.

Sentencing will take place today.