Woman found guilty of choking baby with soft toy

LONDON - A British woman, who had affairs with two people at the same time with the sole intention of getting pregnant, has been found guilty of suffocating her three-year-old daughter to death with a soft toy.

Helen Mary Caudwell, 42, used a teddy bear to kill three-year-old Bethany Marie Kennerley-Caudwell before attempting to commit suicide by slashing her own wrists in October 2009, the Manchester Crown Court heard Friday.

Bethany was found dead in her mother’s flat with a soft toy lying next to her. Her saliva and blood were found on the toy.

Helen Caudwell, from Greater Manchester, lived a double life and had two simultaneous affairs with Miles Kennerley and Mark Davies, despite having three children by her first husband, Ian Caudwell, Sky News reported.

Helen told the court she was “desperate” for another child but Ian Caudwell had undergone a vasectomy. She then started the affairs with Kennerley and Davies, with the “sole intention of getting pregnant”.

When she became pregnant, she told both the men he was the father, and carried on the affairs. They both believed themselves to be Bethany’s father and neither knew of the other’s existence.

She denied murder charges and told the court she suffered an “abnormality of the mind” at the time of the killing.