A woman with a history of drinking and mental health problems was jailed for life on Tuesday for murdering her four-year-old disabled daughter. Joanne Hill, 32, had admitted drowning her daughter Naomi in a bath last November but denied murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the Press Association reported. Addressing the court after it handed down its verdict following a two-week trial at Chester Crown Court, Judge Elgan Edwards told Hill there was no excuse for what she had done. Hill, from Connah's Quay in Flintshire, will serve a minimum of 15 years before becoming eligible for parole. The judge told Hill she had been unable to cope with her daughter's disability -- Naomi suffered from mild cerebral palsy and had to wear callipers to walk. "This has been a very sad case," said Edwards. "Sad for you, for your husband, for the child you killed." Hill had given police grim details of how she collected her daughter from a childminder after work, ran a bath, drank a glass of wine, and then held Naomi's head under the water for between 10 and 20 minutes. She then dressed her lifeless daughter, put her in the family car and drove around for eight hours, before walking drunk into a hospital at 3.30 a.m. with Naomi in her arms. Hill told medical staff: "Will somebody help me, I think she's dead." Advertising saleswoman Hill had had an affair with a colleague at work a few days earlier. Her 38-year-old husband Simon had refused Hill's request for Naomi to be adopted or fostered by their childminder. He told journalists after the trial he would never come to terms with his daughter's murder at the hands of his wife. "What she did to my princess Naomi was evil," he said. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=636171

I could understand how the burden of taking care of a disabled child and the work and costs associated with it might cause someone to crack up....maybe not murder the child. But it has to be a tough life. I don't condone it but I could understand it. BUT the fact that she had an affair seems to make me think she might have wanted to start something up with the new guy and thought that maybe she couldn't do it with the child in tow...now that to me would be premeditated murder. Then her riding around for a few hours and getting drunk probably made her come to her senses and she went to the hospital with the child. I guess no one will ever truly know why she did it but her.

i couldn't find the article, but that won't stop me from expressing an opinion. in virginia, drinking is no defense. diminished capacity is no defense in virginia. mental health problems that result in difficulties in appreciating why or what might count. the murder of a 4 year old daughter is tragic. burrrrrrrr!!! the little girl, in most states, could have been turned over to authorities for protection and care rather than murder. to formulate a solid opinion, i'd have to read what mental health conditions she had ... again, at least in virginia, if someone is found no guilty by reason of insanity, they spend a l-o-n-g time in a state hospital rather than a l-o-n-g time in prison.

I find it very sad that she had a history of this and no one did anything about the fact she was left to care for a disabled child resulting in the child's death. At other times child welfare departments cant wait to remove children from homes and yet here is a case of a child who obviously needed protection and didn't get it.