By James Simons-
A young woman from Bradford has today admitted killing her 18-month-old son.
23-year-old Gemma Procter of Newcastle House Barkerend appeared before Bradford Crown Court this morning admitted manslaughter under the mitigating argument of diminished responsibility during a 10-minute hearing. She was initially due to be tried for murder for the killing.
Her plea was accepted after the court heard medical reports during the short hearing in court. The sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 15.
Her toddler, Elliott Procter, died after falling from a sixth-floor window at a block of flats in Bradford on October 21. Attempts to save the toddler who was naked as he fell on to the cobbled were in vain. Diminished responsibility is used in criminal law to argue that the defendant should not be held criminally liable for their offence despite breaking the law because they suffer from a mental impairment that affects their judgment from doing the right thing.
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It implies an abnormality of mind, but the problem with this law is that there are defendants who may have a track medical history of being mentally unsound but who may still be aware and conscious of the offence they are committing. If Procter has a mental impairment, she really should not have had an 18 months old baby under her care. This is where what appears to be a contradiction comes into the equation, and The Eye Of Media.Com will be launching an investigation into why Procter was allowed to have an 18 year old child under her care if she was mentally unstable, and whether the reason given is logically acceptable.
The death of the young toddler and her defence of diminishing responsibility has enraged members of the public. 26-year-old Simone Rees from Bradford told The Eye Of Media.Com :” it is pathetic that a mother can get away with killing an 18-year-old toddler under her care and use diminishing responsibility to escape justice. It weakens the public’s faith in the British justice system. This woman should be serving life for murder. If she suffered form a mental disorder, how come social services were not aware of this? How come other family members did not know? This is totally insane, it even looks more insane than the mind of the woman who has committed this horrible crime”.
29-year-old Jacob Adams, also from Bradford, told The Eye Of Media.Com: ” this looks like more than madness. There can’t be much sense in believing that a woman allowed access to an 18 month old baby could kill the child so brutally and use diminishing responsibility to escape proper punishment. An appeal should be launched against the judgement, this doesn’t look like justice to me”.
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