A mother stabbed her daughter to death because she was terrified she would die from Covid-19 and thought the little girl could not live without her, a court heard.
Sutha Sivanantham, 36, stabbed her daughter Sayagi, 5, in the bedroom of their south London flat 15 times before turning the knife on herself.
Her husband said she had been ‘petrified’ about catching the virus and the lockdown restrictions may have ‘pushed her over the edge.’
Appearing at the Old Bailey, Sivanantham denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and will be kept in hospital indefinitely.
Sivanantham, who had been living in the UK since 2006 after an arranged marriage, complained of mystery ailments for almost a year before the tragedy.
She developed a ‘morbid concern’ she was seriously ill and had become convinced she was going to die, prosecutors said.
Sainsbury’s worker Suganthan Sivanantham was called at the supermarket to be told that his wife had killed their daughter at their home in Mitcham.
Sivanantham sobbed loudly in the dock as his impact statement was read to the court.
He said: ‘I get very emotional having to relive what has happened to my daughter and my wife
He said before the killing the family had lived a ‘happy fulfilling and blissful life.’
Since then he has had to give up work and ‘each day is a struggle’.
Mr Sivanantham said he has not spoken to his wife but accepts she was not responsible for her actions.
‘I know that if she was well she would not have been able to kill our daughter,’ he said.
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