Disclaimer: This article contains details about shooting and killing.
In a June 2023 incident in Staffordshire, United Kingdom, a mom (Veronique John, 50) is said to have killed her two children and tried to harm her estranged husband. It was part of a series of events driven by her fear of losing custody of her kids.
Veronique took the lives of her 11-year-old son, Ethan, and 7-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Ethan was stabbed over 20 times, while Elizabeth suffered deadly injuries to the brain, according to the prosecution at Nottingham Crown Court. After this unthinkable act, she is said to have gotten into her car, still wearing her nightgown, and driven to a local car wash to confront her husband, Nathan John.
At the car wash, she stabbed Nathan in the stomach. But unlike her children, he survived.
The prosecutor, Peter Grieves-Smith, described the situation to the jury, saying, “That day, she just erupted, killed her children and attacked Nathan.” But this was not an impulsive outburst. Veronique had been showing signs of distress before this event, as the custody battle over the children was taking its toll.
Hours before the killings, Veronique John is said to have searched online for a heart-wrenching question, a sign of the horror that was about to unfold. Hailing from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, she was reportedly gripped by the fear that, as an outsider, she could be separated from her children during a custody battle.
That fear grew into a terrible plan. According to sources, John confessed to the officers that she had been thinking about it for a long time. “Unless you guys are offering me the death penalty, I have nothing else to say.”
Also, John reportedly revealed to the authorities, “I did it because I love my children – to protect the children,” and went on to ask, “if there’s any possible way I could be put to death, I would like that.”
John has been accused of two murders, one attempted murder, and also faces a charge of injury.
But a mental health assessment has deemed John unable to understand the legal proceedings or assist in their defense. So instead of a typical trial where a person’s guilt or innocence is the question, John’s case is what’s known as a “trial of facts.” This means the jury’s job is to figure out if John actually did what they’re accused of, not whether they’re guilty or not guilty.
A woman “erupted” into violence and killed her two children before stabbing her husband and telling police she wanted the death penalty, a jury has been told.
Veronique John, 50, who has been deemed unfit to plead, stabbed her children aged seven and 11 because she did not want… pic.twitter.com/Qa1Dr0sSvk
— London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) June 24, 2024
The trial started without John in the courtroom.
They’re being kept in a hospital that’s specially equipped to handle people with serious mental health needs. Judge Choudhury, in charge of the trial, told the jury that this case is going to be a tough one emotionally.
He reminded them that their job is to be fair and not let their feelings get in the way of the facts.
When the police arrived at the scene of the incident, John didn’t put up a fight. In fact, she was calm and even asked for due punishment. She told the officers, “If you have a gun, shoot me. I am not a monster – he was going to take them from me.”
These chilling 911 calls were made by Veronique John and her husband after she fatally stabbed their two young children and attacked her husband in June 2023.
On June 11, police responded to a car wash in Stoke, England, where Nathan John had been stabbed by his wife. He was… pic.twitter.com/339fadfwzQ
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) October 8, 2024
The prosecution has shared that John’s family had a history of trouble.
The exact details of their custody setup haven’t been fully explained, but the BBC has talked about problems between the killer mom, Veronique John, and her husband. One strange part was that John didn’t want her husband to have a phone that could use the internet. She may have been trying to control him or had other fears.
The case will go on for six days. The defense team hasn’t talked to the public yet, but because of John’s mental health and how different this trial is, her future might be decided more by doctors than by the jurors who are listening to the case.
