EDINBURGH MOTHER WHO SMOTHERED SON GETS PROBATION AFTER PSYCHIATRIC ASSESSMENT
A depressed woman who smothered her 19-month-old son with a pillow five days after taking a drugs overdose was shown mercy by a judge yesterday.As Lord Philip placed Nancy McGibbon on probation for three years on condition that she receive hospital treatment, her relatives hit out over a tragedy which they claimed need never have happened.
The judge heard that, as 34-year-old McGibbon was being taken to hospital after the overdose, she confided that she had no feelings for her son, Alexander.
Relatives also alleged that she had been sent home the following day after a psychiatrist had seen her for just a few minutes.
McGibbon wept as advocate-depute Sam Cathcart provided details of the case to Lord Philip at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Mr Cathcart said that McGibbon and her husband, David,36, had a daughter, now aged seven, and they had both wanted another child.
After Alexander was born in January 1996, McGibbon was in good health and not suffering from post-natal depression.
In June last year, her doctor prescribed the drug Inderal to help her cope with headaches and, when the family came back from a holiday in Majorca, Mr McGibbon noticed a marked change in her behaviour.
''She became obsessional about housework and everything had to be done by a particular time,'' added Mr Cathcart.
''If this was not done, she would become agitated and upset.'' On August 22, McGibbon cut her wrists then telephoned her husband at work to let him know what she had done.
The wounds were superficial and she did not need hospital treatment.
Later that day, however, she had to be admitted to hospital after taking an overdose of Inderal washed down with two glasses of vodka.
The advocate-depute told the court: ''On the way to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, she spoke to a paramedic and told him that she had never been right since the birth of her second child.
She said she only wanted one child and had no feelings for the second child.'' McGibbon was admitted overnight and, the following day, a psychiatrist told her she could go home.
He said he would arrange for a psychiatric nurse to visit her and that he would inform her GP.
Mr Cathcart made it clear that at no time did the accused or anyone else tell the psychiatrist about McGibbon's feelings towards her son.
However, later that day, McGibbon indicated to her sister that she felt trapped and wished that he had never had Alexander.
Four days later, on August 27, she phoned police to say: ''I have suffocated my wee one.'' After the emergency services arrived at her home in Laichpark Road, Chesser, Edinburgh, she was heard to say: ''He has been crying all morning and he would not stop.
I didn't mean to harm him.
I put a pillow over him.'' A post mortem examination revealed that Alexander had a cyst on his brain and that made it more likely that he had died more quickly.
There was expert evidence that the drugs overdose could have added to McGibbon's depression, and two psychiatrists agreed that at the time she was suffering from diminished responsibility.
She was originally charged with murder and had been detained in Cornton Vale prison under special suicide watch.
Mr Neil Murray QC, defence counsel, said there was no doubt that the McGibbons had wanted Alexander.
''The child was a godsend to them and was fit and well-nourished.
This was a child who was loved and who was wanted and she misses him very much indeed.'' After McGibbon admitted a reduced charge of culpable homicide, Lord Philip said it was clear that she needed medical help rather than punishment.
He made it a condition of her probation that she receive up to 12 months in-patient treatment at a psychiatric hospital.
Outside the court, McGibbon's brother, Mr Billy Gallacher, claimed: ''If she had been looked at more closely this would never have happened.
I went to see her (in hospital) and I thought she would be in for a while.
''I was amazed she got released the next day.'' McGibbon's husband described the case as a tragedy and added: ''I am very pleased the court recognised Nancy's medical condition at the time.'' A spokesman for the ERI said that a comment would be inappropriate at this stage.
