2-year-old Balthous Galacia stabbed to death by mentally ill mother

On Tuesday 14 August, 23-year-old Congolese national, Ntsimbi Galacia is believed to have stabbed her two-year-old daughter, Balthous to death before stabbing herself. Neighbours who were concerned about Ntsimbi’s increasingly erratic behaviour had been reported her to the police several times during the preceding weeks. However, concern about her behaviour had been noted by neighbours when she first moved to the area eight months previously.

She had also been arrested by the police a week before killing her daughter after 26-year-old, Huseyin Alacayir, a local shopkeeper complained that she had been harassing him and claiming that he was the father of her daughter. He said: "I have had to bar her from my shop. She kept telling me I was her husband, that we lived together for three years and that I was the father of her girl… I had no idea who she was and she would make similar claims to other shop owners round here. I felt very sorry for her little girl because despite everything she was so happy and she loved playing with the other children outside."

Ntsimbi has been referred by police for mental health assessment and on 9 August, the North East London Mental Healthcare Trust had ruled that Ntsimbi did not have any mental healthcare issues. Five days later police were called to her flat in Barking, Essex after midnight after a neighbour reported hearing screams. They arrived to find Balthous had been stabbed to death and her mother also had stab wounds. Ntsimbi was taken to hospital and her condition was described as serious but not life threatening.

Mwan Kilapi, a welfare officer from the Community of Congolese Refugees said that a woman by the name of Miss Galtricia who lived at the address where the murder took place had visited them on a number of occasions but had not seemed stressed in any way. The confirmed that she was from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.

A multi-agency review also been launched into the case.