Killer mum who suffocated 2-yr-old daughter after sending dad ‘one last picture’ jailed for 16 years
A ‘wicked and appalling’ young mother who told a dad he would need to go to court to see his two-year-old daughter before suffocating her, was today jailed for 16 years.
Cody-Anne Jackson, 20, killed little Macey Hogan after sending her father a message with a picture of his child reading: ‘Sorry, just thought you deserved one last picture and memory of her.’
Jackson used a dressing gown cord or pillow to ‘smother or strangle’ Macey a week after the toddler’s father, Paul Hogan, 22, had moved out of the family home.
Stafford Crown Court today heard she killed her daughter in an act of ‘cold, callous revenge’ against her ex-boyfriend.
Police found Macey’s body at the house in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on October 10 last year after Jackson dialled 999 saying the tot was not breathing.
Dramatic video footage shows the moment officers were forced to smash their way into the house where they found the toddler lying dead.
They also found Jackson, who was 19 at the time of the murder, with knife wounds.
Jackson originally denied murder but dramatically changed her plea six days into her trial.
She originally claimed she had taken Macey into her own bed after she failed to settle in her cot.
Jackson later said she woke up to find her daughter lying cold and lifeless between two pillows next to her in bed.
During her trial, the court was told Jackson also wrote a suicide note before the killing, stating: ‘There’s nothing for me or Macey, life’s s***.’
Jurors heard that Jackson, who has a history of self-harm, sent the child’s father a photo of Macey two days before she was found dead with the message: ‘Possibly see you in court.’
She was jailed today for life and told she would serve a minimum of 16 years and 114 days behind bars.
Police have released the harrowing 999 call Jackson made, requesting an ambulance because her daughter ‘was not breathing’.
When told by the operator she needed to put her daughter on her back, she claimed she couldn’t because ‘every time she moved it hurt’.
Judge Michael Chambers QC told her: ‘For a mother to kill her very young daughter who relies on her for protection above all others is a wicked and appalling act.
‘This is not a case where you were suffering from mental illness.
‘You thought about killing yourself, and decided to kill Macey to prevent her from having to live without a mother.
‘This is a case, as the prosecution have pointed out, of utter self-absorption on your part.
‘The impact of what you did upon Paul Hogan and the other parties is, of course, impossible to comprehend.
‘Macey was healthy when she died and had just started nursery. She was a normal, happy child with her whole life ahead of her.
‘At the time of the killing you were attending college on a part-time basis, and had even been in college on October 7.
‘But your relationship with Paul Hogan had deteriorated. You despaired of the fact that during his hours of relaxation he would go drinking with his friends.
‘You, by contrast, were more introverted.
‘During the morning of October 8, you argued with him and your relationship ended. You said that he would not be able to see Macey without a court order.
‘By the evening of October 9 you had retrieved his house key and you faced a future without him.
‘Faced with a probable future alone, isolated and without Macey’s father, you chose to take your life and kill Macey.
‘I am satisfied from the suicide note that you intended to kill Macey for some time before the actual event.
‘By your own admission you killed Macey intending to do so. As to how you actually did it, you have refused to divulge.
‘It is clear that this was death by strangulation or suffocation, perhaps by your dressing gown cord, but that is unclear.
‘You stabbed yourself in the chest and attempted to slit your wrists, but when you could not do so, you phoned the police.
‘But, of course, by that time it was far too late to save Macey.’
The jury had previously heard how Jackson smothered Macey using either a towel, cord or pillow. Prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC told the court: ‘Cody-Anne Jackson deliberately and forcefully smothered her child. Macey was murdered in her own home by her own mother.
‘A significant aggravating factor is the pre-meditated nature of the murder, and in a letter addressed to Mr Craig Jackson, her uncle, the defendant wrote: “I don’t want to live anymore.
“I cannot picture mine or Macey’s future. I never have done. I sit here thinking about killing my own daughter and myself. Life is s*** and the world is f*****”.
‘It is claimed from the documents and the other evidence in the case that the defendant thought about the killing of Macey for some time before doing so.
‘She sent a message to her former partner, Paul Hogan, before the murder.
‘The message read: “Savour the last picture”.
‘It was followed four minutes later by another message sent by SMS saying ‘”sorry, thought you deserved one last picture of her. Possibly see you in court”.
‘She was murdered in her own home and there can be no greater breach of trust.
‘The 999 call she made was a sham. The defendant had killed Macey hours before and clearly was aware of this.
Macey’s father Mr Hogan who was in the public gallery as Jackson was jailed, was too upset to comment after the sentencing.
Alison Hunter QC, defending, said: ‘The defendant sort to also end her own life, she had clearly reached a flashpoint that day.’
Detective Inspector Dan Ison, of Staffordshire Police, said: ‘This was not a killing that occurred due to a struggling single parent, nor was it a killing where in some perverse way it was felt that Macey was being protected from someone or something, this was a killing that was cold and callous and set to exact revenge on Paul Hogan as he had broken off the relationship with Cody-Anne Jackson.
‘It is absolutely unforgivable that a beautiful and healthy child has had her life taken away and I am sorry for the loss that this has left for Paul and his family.
‘Our thoughts are all with them at this time.’
Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4735186/Mother-20-suffocated-two-year-old-daughter.html
