A woman who drowned her two-year-old son in the bath while suffering from delusions that her family were possessed by demons has been detained under the mental health act.
Natalie Steele, whose family described her as a “devoted” mother, was arrested after her son Reid was found unresponsive at their home in Parkwood Heights in Bridgend on 11 August last year. He was pronounced dead in hospital the following afternoon.
The 32-year-old had been suffering from “unrecognised, undiagnosed and untreated mental illness”, and had been “so deluded that she drowned her son to protect him from demons and send him to heaven”, a psychiatrist’s report found.
The Crown Prosecution Service has accepted her guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after two forensic psychiatrists found her culpability for the killing was low.
Judge Michael Fitton QC described the case as “a profound human tragedy” at a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday, where he detained Ms Steele under sections 37 and 41 of the mental health act.
Had she not been trying to protect her son, Steele “would not otherwise have harmed him in any way”, the judge was reported as saying, adding that it was not appropriate for her to face prison.
Steele’s family described the judge’s decision as “the right one” and paid tribute to Reid as “the most loved, beautiful, funny, intelligent and loving little boy”.
Prosecutor Michael Jones QC said Steele’s family had described her as inseparable from her son “from day one”, but that she had been behaving oddly in the days prior to his death and had reported seeing and hearing things.
Steele, who had recently converted to Christianity, had told her mother, Amanda Prescott, that she had been “seeing lights” and told her “demons are dark and real”, while noting that “the rooms feel different”.
The night before Reid’s death, she had been on a camping trip on the west coast of Wales with members of her church, but had been driven home early the following day by a friend within the congregation after those on the trip became concerned by her demands to be immediately baptised.
Heidi Ackland, who was not on the trip and drove to New Quay on 11 August to try to help Steele, eventually persuading her to come home with her, said her friend was “speaking gibberish” and telling her that she had to be a sacrifice.
Ms Ackland said that, during the journey home, Steele was compulsively checking on her son in his car seat in the back, saying things like “I love you Reid” and kept taking her own seatbelt off, leaving the witness concerned that her friend might try and leave the moving vehicle.
After dropping Steele back at the home she shared with her mother, step-father and brother, Ms Ackland later returned to the property to find the emergency services already there, after Steele sent her a text message saying: “I've done something terrible, I had to protect Reid from my family.”
Steele's mother told police her daughter had taken her grandson for his bath at around 6pm, but had come downstairs at around 7.30pm saying words, rather than full sentences, such as “I think I done” and “I done it”.
Ms Prescott said she had “gone into panic mode” and rushed upstairs to find Reid unconscious and wrapped in a towel on the bathroom floor.
Steele later told police officers she had been playing “cups of tea” with Reid in the bath and had breastfed him before holding him underwater.
She said she was “really worried” about her family, who she said had “creepy eyes”, adding that she had “problems with spirits” and that “spirits had been touching her”. She told her mother: “I felt I had to protect him from you.”
In her police interviews, she said her mother, step-father and siblings had “big eyes” and “contorted” faces, and she believed they were possessed by demons.
While held in prison, Steele had to be admitted to hospital because she was refusing to eat or drink, telling staff she had to fast for 40 days so she could join Reid in heaven.
Judge Fitton told Steele it was “a profound human tragedy that it was you who loved [Reid] so dearly that caused this loss of life” and that it was “the clear opinion of the professionals” that she had done so while “suffering a period of serious and severe mental illness”.
He added: “You were subject to visual and auditory hallucinations and you had paranoid beliefs and you were operating under the terrible mistake that your own family that loved Reid as dearly as you did wanted to harm him.”
Section 37 of the mental health act allows the courts to send someone suffering with mental illness to hospital instead of prison if they are convicted of a crime punishable by jail, while crown court judges can use section 41 to place certain restrictions on the defendant and their responsible clinician.
Addressing Steele’s family after the sentencing, Judge Fitton said: “I have seen or read nothing to permit me to conclude anyone, either here or not here today, is at fault or carries any blame for her illness, not being treated or events of what took place.”
“Not one of you present in the house carries any blame or responsibility whatsoever,” he added, in comments reported by Wales Online. “Please remember those words. You are in no way to blame.”
In a statement, her family addressed the loss of Reid and welcomed the judge’s decision.
“Our lives have changed forever,” they said. “We will always have a piece missing from our family. Reid was the most loved, beautiful, funny, intelligent and loving little boy, who touched the hearts of everyone he met.
“He spent so much time with his family who loved him so very much. The pain we feel at Reid's loss can never be properly expressed with words.
“As a family, we unanimously agree that the judge's decision today was the right one. Natalie will continue to receive the treatment she needs, to hopefully, in time, get better.
“Mental health conditions can sometimes be frightening, complicated and most importantly, not always visible until it is too late. But there is help out there. Please don't be afraid to reach out.”
Additional reporting by PA
