Mother deemed “no risk to herself or others” kills her two children

This month saw the trial of 29-year-old mother and schizoaffective disorder sufferer, Vivian Gamor, who murdered her two children in Hackney, east London. Vivian suffocated her three-year-old daughter, Kenniece with cling film and bludgeoned her 10-year-old son Antoine to death with a claw hammer. His body was found in a crouched, defensive position between a cupboard and the wall. She then proceeded to call the emergency services, telling the operator; “I kind of lost it, I snapped”. When police officers arrived on the scene, she told them, “I don’t care, they aren’t mine”.

The tragic incident, which occurred in January 2007, highlighted the alleged incompetence of Haringey social services that apparently ignored the concerns raised by the children’s father, Gabriel "Jimi" Ogunkoya, about Vivian’s mental instability and the risk of leaving the children in her care during unsupervised visits. In a statement read out in court, Jimi said; “I obeyed the law and let them go. I wish I had not done that. The system that I obeyed has frog-marched my children to their deaths. They assessed her and found nothing wrong. This is pure negligence, which will not be tolerated. My heart hurts and the pain brings out the tears for the loss of my two little angels. It was horrible, a horrible nightmare that I still haven't woken up from."

His initial concerns about Vivian’s behaviour are consistent with her psychological history. She has previously been sectioned after claiming that she was the son of God and the twin of Jesus. She had also changed her name by deed poll to Mother Nature Vivian. In 2005, when the children’s father had gone to collect them, he discovered that Vivian had shaved off half of Kenneice’s hair. A year later, she refused to see the children believing that her children had been still born at birth and swapped for Antoine and Kenneice. In September 2006, she attempted to attack her sister with a knife. Despite being initially sectioned, she was later released after psychiatrists at Homerton Hospital in East London declared that she posed no risk to herself or to others and no longer had delusional thoughts about the children.

Despite this history, Jimi Ogunkoya faced a battle with social services to stop Gamor seeing the children. He was repeatedly told by professional institutions that he was not permitted to come between a mother and her children.

During the hearing at the Old Bailey, Vivian Gamor starred blankly ahead as the details of her children’s deaths were read out in court. After admitting two counts of manslaughter, the Judge Peter Rook ruled that she be detained indefinitely. He said: "The loss of these young lives has led to unimaginable suffering for the children's father Jimi Ogunkoya, a devoted father who cherished your two children and worked so hard to ensure the children were safe and happy and provide a home for them. And also to the children's grandparents who played such an important part in their upbringing and looked forward to continue doing so. On the face of it, this terrible tragedy could have been avoided if you had not been allowed unsupervised access and the children's father's grave concerns had been given weight. I acknowledge I say this with the benefit of hindsight and it is not for this court to deal with that issue. I appreciate the issue is far from simple."

Diane Ellis QC, for Gamor, told the court: "There have undoubtedly been failures among the professionals caring for her." Fran Pearson, chairman of the City and Hackney Safeguarding Children Board, said the board had launched an inquiry in the handling of the case. She added; "Mental illness is often unpredictable, but if there are any lessons from this which will help us to protect children better in the future, then they will be learnt, and any necessary action implemented."

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said: "This harrowing case highlights the failure to assess the risk that Vivian Gamor posed to her family when their concerns were apparently ignored. In half of the rare headline cases Sane has analysed there has been a failure to heed the warnings of families, which was identified by the judge in this case as a key factor leading to this tragic and unnecessary loss of life."