Stab mother's conviction 'unsafe'

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A woman with a history of mental illness who stabbed her five-year-old daughter to death has had her murder conviction quashed.

Lawyers urged Aisling Murray to plead guilty to the manslaughter of Chloe Fahey but she insisted on admitting murder, saying she should be punished.

On Wednesday, Court of Appeal judges agreed the conviction was unsafe and should be overturned and changed.

It was replaced by manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Giving the ruling of the court, Lord Justice Toulson imposed a hospital order without limit of time.

Murray, who is in a medium secure unit in Greater Manchester, watched the proceedings via video link.

'Psychotic episodes'

She was aged 23 when she appeared at Manchester Crown Court in January 2004 and admitted the murder of her daughter who had been stabbed 52 times.

Murray was arrested at her home in Bradhsaw Lane, Stretford, in the early hours of 27 June, 2003 after a neighbour reported hearing a child screaming.

Police broke down the front door and found Murray downstairs while her daughter lay dead in an upstairs bedroom.

A post-mortem examination revealed Chloe had died from multiple stab wounds to the chest and stomach.

Lord Justice Toulson said the question for the court was whether an appeal should be allowed in the case of an appellant who had pleaded guilty.

He ruled: "It is clear from the latest medical evidence that her decision to plead guilty to murder was affected by her mental condition which also substantially diminished her responsibility for the killing."

Murray had a long history of mental health problems and medical evidence showed she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the judge said.

She also suffered "psychotic episodes at times of stress very similar to that which affected her at the time of the killing".

The judge said doctors could not make a medical judgment when she could be released and so ruled the hospital order should have no time limit.