Killer mother faces life in jail

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A mother who stabbed her two daughters to death in "an act of calculated viciousness" is facing a life sentence.

Using two kitchen knives she bought at Asda, Rekha Kumari-Baker stabbed 16-year-old Davina 37 times and 13-year-old Jasmine 29 times as they slept.

Her ex-husband David Baker said he had been "robbed" of his daughters and his ex-wife "would pay the price".

Kumari-Baker, who will be sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court, said in a note she was "sorry" she killed them.

She had admitted killing the girls in June 2007 at their home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, but had denied murdering them on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

However the jury did not believe her and took just 35 minutes to find her guilty of murder.

Girl 'fought back'

After the verdict, Mr Baker said: "I was robbed of my daughters by an act of calculated viciousness by a woman who, having given life to them, in her vindictive mind believed she also had a right to take that life from them.

"She will now pay the price for this."

Jurors heard the couple's marriage broke down about five years before Kumari-Baker killed her daughters.

Davina and Jasmine were killed with a kitchen knife

Jurors were told one theory was that Kumari-Baker wanted to "wreak havoc" on her ex-husband by killing the girls.

She had also been distressed by the break-up of a relationship with a boyfriend.

Jurors were told that two days before the attack Kumari-Baker took Jasmine to see a GP for a routine appointment and appeared "light-hearted".

But on the way back home she bought the knives she used to kill her daughters.

Jurors were told Davina was found kneeling on her bedroom floor and evidence suggested she had tried to fight back. Jasmine was found dead in bed.

After the killings, psychiatrists examined Kumari-Baker and concluded she was not clinically depressed and was responsible for her actions when she killed her children.