Jail for ménage-à-trois mother driven to kill

A “LOVING and caring” but mentally unstable mother who drowned her daughter in a burn was jailed for five-and-a-half years yesterday.

Rachel Cowley, 43, had lived an “unconventional” life with a man and another woman, and she was pushed over the edge when the other woman gave birth.

Cowley cut the baby’s umbilical cord before falling into a trance-like state. She walked hand in hand with her daughter, Isabelle, four, from the labour ward, and held her head under the water of a stream in the grounds of Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. A judge was told by experts that Cowley had been suffering from “an abnormality of mind” and that the killing was to have been a prelude to her taking her own life.

Lord Bannatyne said: “What happened was a dreadful tragedy as your daughter was deprived at such an early age of her life.

“All the family members have been devastated by the enormous loss they have sustained.”

He noted that, until the offence, Cowley had looked after Isabelle well and that she was a loving and caring parent. That night, her responsibility for her actions had been diminished because of her mental condition.

However, background reports suggested that Cowley would present a real danger to any other child she might have, and Lord Bannatyne ordered that she be closely supervised for four-and-a-half years after her jail sentence expired.

Cowley showed little emotion as she was led from the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh, smiling slightly to acknowledge her mother and stepfather in the public benches.

Cowley lived with Chris Everitt, 36, and Nicola Charles, 26, in Glenurquhart, near the Loch Ness-side village of Drumnadrochit. Mr Everitt was the father of her two children, Isabelle and Oliver, three.

Ms Charles fell pregnant and had a baby boy on 22 February. Cowley attended the birth and cut the cord.

“She bowed her head, put one hand on her chest and one hand on her stomach and stood in that position for about 20 minutes in a trance-like state,” said the advocate-depute, Alex Prentice, QC.

Isabelle referred to Ms Charles as “mummy”, and Cowley felt “an energy” come over her and left with her daughter. She drowned her in the burn and left the body covered in vegetation.

In the early hours of the next morning, she turned up at a house about four miles away and asked for help. When Isabelle’s body was found, Cowley said: “I am very confused in my head. I thought I had to do it and now I feel really bad.”

Cowley was initially accused of murdering Isabelle but the charge was reduced to culpable homicide on the ground of diminished responsibility. She pleaded guilty, and was remanded in a psychiatric clinic for assessment and treatment pending yesterday’s sentencing hearing.

Reports indicated that she did not need to remain in the clinic, although she could be transferred from prison if her condition deteriorated.

The defence solicitor-advocate, Murray Macara QC, said a number of friends had written references for Cowley. They were mothers, and one woman had summed up the feelings of many in stating it was “incredible” that Cowley should take the life of her cherished daughter, and that “something must have gone tragically wrong”.

Mr Macara said Cowley had been in a “very unconventional” relationship, but she was an individual who presented as extremely brittle, fragile and vulnerable.

“It is hard to imagine a case more difficult, tragic and anxious as a mother killing her own daughter. Nobody has suggested anything other than that she was a devoted mother. The conclusion of the various experts is she was a vulnerable individual,” said Mr Macara.

The experts had found that the dynamics of the relationship changed when Ms Charles gave birth. It made Cowley’s domestic situation untenable for her, and one of the witnesses had stated: “Her world collapsed when the baby was born.”