In 2019, Samantha Ford, then aged 38, of Margate, Kent, was sentenced to ten years’ detention at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) after admitting to the manslaughter of her 23-month-old twins, Chloe and Jake Ford.
The sentencing followed an investigation by Kent Police into events that occurred across Boxing Day and the early hours of 27 December 2018.
The court heard that Ford and her husband Steven had spent the first decade of their marriage living an affluent lifestyle in Qatar before returning to the United Kingdom to settle in Charing, Kent, in 2018.
Following the relocation, the relationship deteriorated rapidly, resulting in a separation that saw Ford move with the toddlers to a rented property in Margate while her husband remained in Charing.
On Christmas Day, the children spent time opening presents with their father before being returned to Ford’s care for Boxing Day.
During that evening, Ford drowned both toddlers in the bath.
After killing the children, Ford dried them, dressed them in clean clothes, and positioned their bodies in their beds.
In the early hours of 27 December, Ford drove her vehicle at approximately 100mph into the rear of a lorry without wearing a seatbelt.
When police officers extricated her from the wreckage, Ford stated: “I’ve killed my babies. Please let me die. I put them in the bath. We were meant to be together.”
Detectives dispatched to the Margate residence discovered the two infants deceased in their bedroom.
Forensic psychiatrists told the court that Ford suffered from depressive illness alongside narcissistic personality traits, with clinicians testifying that the killings were executed out of anger, bitterness, and a desire for revenge against her estranged husband.
Ford denied two charges of murder but entered guilty pleas to:
- Two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility
The sentencing judge noted that Ford’s anger toward her husband was a key factor in the killings, concluding she acted with full awareness of the devastation it would cause him.
The court imposed a 10-year determinate sentence under Section 45A of the Mental Health Act (a hybrid hospital order).
Under this order, Ford was directed to be detained at the Trevor Gibbens Unit in Maidstone for psychiatric treatment, with the provision that she would be transferred to the prison estate to serve the remainder of her term once treatment concluded.
Following her conviction, it was revealed that Ford sent a letter from the psychiatric unit to the children’s paternal grandmother, continuing to deflect responsibility and blaming the bereaved father for the death of the twins.
Release Calculation: Under UK sentencing legislation governing standard determinate non-sexual sentences, an offender subject to a hybrid order is eligible for statutory release on licence upon reaching the halfway point (50 per cent / 60 months / 5 years) of the sentence, provided mental health tribunals or the prison service assess that release criteria are satisfied. The remaining five years of the sentence are served under licence supervision in the community.
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