In 2014, Tania Clarence was arrested after allegedly killing her twin three year-old boys and their four year-old sister with spinal muscular atrophy. The children were found dead in the Clarence’s apartment and friends said that their dad was traveling for work at the time of the murder. She wrote her husband, Gary Clarence, a note about the killings saying they were too much to care for.
She said, “Gary, I need to tell you how difficult it is for me to take Liv’s life…The boys were bad enough. I am struggling with Liv. I waited until the boys were asleep, the same with Liv. If I could take my own life and leave her to wait for you, I would.”
At the time of his children’s death, Gary said, “Tania’s depression was certainly not assisted by the constant pressure placed on the family by some individuals within the medical profession and social services.”
However, as LifeNews previously reported, Clarence did not face murder charges; instead, she was sent to a mental hospital after a judge decided she was severely depressed over the severity of her children’s suffering.
The prosecutor said, “At the time she killed her three children she was suffering from a major depressive episode which impaired her ability to form a rational judgment. Mrs. Clarence had a long and firmly held belief that the quality of her children’s lives was more important than their longevity. She did not want her children’s suffering extended and her decision to do a positive act revealed that at the time she was unable to form a rational judgment.”
He concluded, “Although the term ‘mercy killing’ has no legal or psychiatric definition it is clear that Mrs. Clarence killed her three children because she was depressed and she wanted to end their suffering. At the time she committed the act she could not see any alternative or any way out of their joint suffering, both her suffering and the suffering of her children.”
Now, unbelievably, the Daily News has reported that she’s back home and has been photographed alone with her oldest daughter.
Last week she was photographed for the first time at the house in New Malden, Surrey, where the killings took place. Wearing blue jeans and a dark top and looking like any other mother on the afternoon school run, she arrived at the £1.2 million detached property in a Hyundai people carrier with a small suitcase on wheels and what appeared to be a bag of shopping.
She was accompanied by another woman and a young girl – thought to be her only surviving child, who was eight years old when the terrible events occurred last April. All three went into the seven-bedroom house and the unidentified woman left half an hour later, driving off in a silver Mazda.
Mrs Clarence declined to comment when she was approached by a Mail on Sunday reporter but her husband Gary, when told that an article about the family was being prepared for publication this weekend, said: ‘Okay, fine.’
The South African-born investment banker was on a trip to his home country with their eldest daughter when the killings took place. It is understood that his wife was given a temporary licence several weeks ago to leave the hospital where she is being treated and has been returning home on a regular basis at weekends.
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Max, Ben and Olivia all had spinal muscular atrophy, which is a devastating muscle-wasting illness sometimes referred to as ‘floppy baby syndrome’. The surviving daughter does not have the condition. Mrs Clarence, who was severely depressed at the time, lied to the family nanny so she could be alone with the three youngest children while her husband and older daughter were away.
After asphyxiating them in their beds, she made what was described in court as a ‘determined effort’ to kill herself.
The judge said the evidence of her diminished responsibility for the children’s deaths was ‘clear and convincing’. Psychiatrists had explained ‘in compelling detail’ that her mental illness had substantially impaired her ability to form a rational judgment.
The judge said she was a dedicated and caring mother who loved her children but had been overwhelmed by the challenge of caring for them. Last night the NHS trust responsible for Mrs Clarence’s treatment declined to comment on the grounds of patient confidentiality. The hospital where she is being treated also cannot be named for legal reasons.
