DOVER MOTHER PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER OF HER YOUNG SON AFTER SHOOTING HERSELF
A mother named Patricia McCarville, 46, who shot dead her four-year-old son Jamie with her husband's shotgun at the family home in Dover in June 2001, then turned the gun on herself, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.She survived the incident after sustaining horrific injuries.
Judge Andrew Patience ordered her to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.
The court was informed that McCarville had been suffering from a severe mental illness at the time of the shootings, with psychiatrists stating she had 'psychotic implications' which led her to believe that killing her son and herself was the only solution to her problems.
She had written on a note, 'I want to be buried with my little boy and left to rest in peace.' Her husband, Frank, Jamie's father, had previously admitted an affair which contributed to her depression.
McCarville had been assessed continually by medical staff and her plea of guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility was accepted by the crown.
The judge acknowledged her mental illness had 'substantially impaired your mental responsibility for what you did'.
