London – More details about what drove a South African woman to suffocate her three disabled children in a fit of depression before trying to kill herself will be heard by a court on Friday, reported the UK-based Press Association.

The case against Tania Clarence, 42, who has admitted the manslaughter of Olivia, 4, and 3-year-old twins Ben and Max by diminished responsibility will be outlined at the Old Bailey in London.

Accepting her plea last month, prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC said the mother-of-four killed the children “because she wanted to end their suffering” and at the time “she could not see any alternative or any other way out of their joint suffering”.

Justice Nigel Sweeney will hear the facts of the case and mitigation, but will sentence at a later date.

The court has heard that Clarence confessed to killing the children at her home in the wealthy south-west London suburb of New Malden on 22 April.

She left three notes before allegedly smothering the children, who all had type two spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a condition which affects muscle strength.

She then tried to kill herself by taking a DRUGoverdose and slashing her wrists.

Clarence was discovered bleeding and crying by her nanny and a neighbour, who had gone to the home after becoming concerned for her safety.

They arrived at 21:00 to find the home in darkness and put on a light on a mobile phone before going upstairs, calling out to Clarence as they went.

Johnson said they “got to the first floor and found Mrs Clarence in a bedroom”.

“She was telling them to go away, saying that it was too late, and clearly seemed disturbed and devastated.”

Asked if she had taken anything, the court heard that Clarence replied: “I took something yesterday, but it didn’t work.”

Johnson said that even from the light from the phone it was obvious she had tried to commit suicide as there was blood coming from her wrist.

Police were called and the neighbour checked if anyone else was in the house.

He opened the door into the children’s bedroom and saw the twin boys dead, but was too shocked to continue his search of the house.

The nanny told police that as she searched the house she was calling out to Clarence, but the South African shouted back: “Just go, it is too late, just go, just go.”

Police arrived at around 21:30 and the three children were pronounced dead at the scene at 21:41.

Clarence confessed to the triple killing to a female police officer at the scene, saying: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Asked why she was sorry, the tearful mother said: “I killed them. I suffocated them.”

Clarence was taken to St George’s Hospital where she was treated for a self-inflicted one-inch cut on her left wrist.

‘I’m guilty’

At the hospital she was told she was going to be taken to the police station, and cried out: “Why do I have to do this, I’m guilty,” the court heard.

Two other notes were found in the house. One discovered on top of a pile of clothes in the master bedroom read: “Gary, I don’t want to be saved please. I can’t live with the horror of what I have done. I thought the pills would work, they didn’t.”

A third note was addressed to the nanny, who was described in court as “a significant member of the family”. Its contents were not divulged.

The court heard that Clarence’s husband Gary was away in South Africa and was not due to fly home until 24 April.

Clarence was not at the Old Bailey to enter her plea in person, although her husband, an INVESTMENT banker, has attended every hearing in the case.

Children with SMA type two have weakness in their muscles which means they cannot stand unaided, may have difficulty with other movements and are vulnerable to respiratory infections.

Although it remains a life-limiting condition, improvements in care mean that most of those affected can live long and fulfilling lives.

– SAPA

Potchefstroom – North West police on Wednesday appealed for help in identifying the skeletal remains of a person found in 2012, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

“Police are requesting anyone who has a missing person reported in 2012 to contact… police,” said Captain Pelonomi Makau.

The bones and skull of a man were found in a forest at Matlwang village outside Potchefstroom in October 2012, and June 2013.

The remains were sent to the Forensic Anthropology Research Centre of the University of Pretoria for reconstruction.

“In February 2014, three dimensional craniofacial reconstruction was done of the skull for identification of the possible victim,” said Makau.

Sapa

Pretoria – South Africa needs to develop a universally accepted notion of what constitutes appropriate forms of public protest, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on its final day of public hearings on Friday.

Such an understanding would be instrumental in ensuring there was never a repeat of the events at Lonmin’s platinum mining operations in Marikana, near Rustenburg in the North West, in August 2012, Ishmael Semenya SC, for the SA Police Service (SAPS), told the commission in Pretoria.

“The place to start is to accept a common understanding of what constitutes acceptable public order discourse for South Africans.”

Those who felt the need to hold protests needed to do so within the confines of the law and the Constitution.

“We must agree that the South Africa we do not want is one where public dissent… is expressed by groups BEARING weapons and bent on conflict and mayhem,” Semenya said.

“We don’t deserve a South Africa that looks on with complicit acquiescence at public displays of criminal conduct…. Where civil society does not express outrage when law and order is disregarded….”

Semenya called on all role players – the police, unions, strikers, and Lonmin – to take responsibility for their actions on the day of the shooting and in the events leading up to it.

The SAPS was the only institution tasked with maintaining law and order, and many police officers were killed each year in the line of duty “so that you and I can have our law and order intact”, he said.

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related violence at Marikana in August 2012.

Thirty-four people, mostly striking mineworkers, were shot dead in a clash with police, more than 70 were wounded, and 250 were arrested on August 16, 2012. Police were apparently trying to disarm and disperse them.

In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed.

Commission spokesman Phuti Setati previously said the commission’s public hearings would wrap up on Friday, so the commissioners could focus on writing their final report, which is to be submitted to President Jacob Zuma next year.

Sapa

Johannesburg – The EFF will seek an urgent interdict against the riot police who entered the National Assembly during a heated session on Thursday, party leader Julius Malema said on Friday.

“It can never and will never be correct for the police to interfere with the proceedings of Parliament, because elected members of Parliament will always be in fear that whatever they say and do in Parliament will be subjected to the police,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.

“Like in Marikana, the police have once more engaged in an illegal activity, demonstrating their incompetence and that they act on political instructions.”

Malema said the Economic Freedom Fighters had approached its LAWYERS on Friday.

The party wants a court to declare it illegal for the police to enter the Chamber.

Malema: We are scared of police

A court order would be important because it would protect Members of Parliament, said Malema.

“We need this order so that such future occurrences don’t happen again.”

It was important that Parliament’s work continued, but it could not as things stood.

“We are scared we will be brutalised by police for expressing a different view,” Malema said.

“The next step to follow will be a loss of life.”

Tempers flared in the House on Thursday when African National Congress MPs retaliated by objecting to motions the opposition tried to bring to delay the tabling of a report on upgrades to
President Jacob Zuma’s homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Democratic Alliance and EFF tabled motion after motion with most questions relating to the Nkandla issue or to Zuma.

Veteran ANC MP Mathole Motshekga, who was pivotal in the ad hoc committee that drafted the report absolving Zuma from responsibility for the alleged ABUSE of funds at Nkandla, said the opposition was exaggerating Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s findings that he repay a portion not related to security upgrades.

EFF MP: Zuma thief

Members of the police public order policing unit entered the National Assembly Chamber during proceedings, and a scuffle ensued.

This was after EFF MP Ngwanamakwetle Mashabela refused to leave the podium when she was ordered to do so by acting Speaker Cedric Frolick.

Mashabela had called Zuma a “thief” during a debate on the Grand Inga Hydro Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and refused to withdraw her remarks.

Mashabela would not be moved when Sergeant-at-Arms Regina Mohlomi tried to escort her from the podium.

Police arrived minutes later and tugged at Mashabela, who could be heard shouting: “I don’t want to be touched”.

MPs from opposition benches expressed outrage and jumped to Mashabela’s defence.

– SAPA