‘Caring’ mum suffering post-natal psychosis killed her baby during walk around the park

A ‘gentle and caring’ mum diagnosed with post-natal depression and psychosis killed her baby while on a walk from a mental health facility, a court heard.

Hayley Macfarlane, 39, took her daughter Evelyn for a permitted walk in Leeds after attending Christmas party at the facility where she was an in-patient, Sheffield Crown Court was told.

Craig Hassall KC, prosecuting, said she was in Hyde Park when she killed the five-month-old, before calling her husband to say their baby had ‘gone’.

Not long before, he had been at home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire wrapping presents and preparing the tree, in expectation of his wife and baby being able to join him later that day.

Evelyn, who was born a healthy baby in July last year, had been a much-wanted and loved baby, the court heard.

Mr Hassall said initially health visitors had no concerns, but the new mother became increasingly preoccupied with her daughter’s wellbeing.

She decided to seek help for her own mental health and was prescribed anti-depressants, but was concerned about what effect taking them would have on the baby.

The month before she killed Evelyn, MacFarlane placed her in the kitchen sink and submerged her before she came to and realised what she had done, the prosecution said.

She could not explain why she did what she did to her husband and soon admitted herself voluntarily for mental health treatment, the court was told.

She was later transferred to a specialist mother and baby psychiatric unit based at Leeds General Infirmary, where she responded to treatment over time.

After taking anti-psychosis medication she relaxed and continued to improve, Mr Hassall said.

On the day her baby died, December 20 last year, MacFarlane was assessed by a trainee clinical psychologist for a review which recorded that the patient was progressing and doing well, the jury heard.

After the assessment, she took Evelyn to a Christmas party on the unit, before heading out for a late afternoon walk with the child, the court heard.

She was said to be in good spirits, the jury were told, and texted her husband to say she loved him and the life they had created together with Evelyn.

However, not long after she rang him to say that he needed to pull over and that ‘Evelyn was gone’, the court heard.

In the dock of the court, MacFarlane broke down in sobs as Mr Hassall told how the mother had then dialled 999 and told the handler how she killed her daughter and that they were in Hyde Park.

Mr Hassall said that in police interviews MacFarlane never tried to deny responsibility for killing the baby.

Psychiatric experts agreed that were it not for her psychosis, MacFarlane would not have killed her baby, the court heard.

It was suggested she may have killed Evelyn because she felt she would never do justice to her as a mother.

During discussions about the defendant’s culpability, given the state of her mental health at the time, Mr Hassall said of the offence: ‘The harm could not be greater and it is difficult to see how the culpability could be any less.’

Louise Blackwell KC, defending, put forward 28 references from people who knew MacFarlane, who herself had worked in mental health services, which described her as a ‘gentle, caring person’.

Ms Blackwell said a letter to the judge from MacFarlane indicated how she was a perfectionist and that she now has a better understanding as to ‘what went wrong’.

MacFarlane’s guilty plea to the unusual charge of infanticide, as opposed to murder, was accepted by the prosecution.

Mrs Justice Lambert said she will pass sentence on Wednesday.

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