Mother who murdered children ‘to get at father’ must serve at least 32 years

Fiona Donnison, 45, used three-year-old Harry and two-year-old Elise Donnison as the “ultimate pawns” by killing them to hurt Paul Donnison in the most extreme way possible.

She went into Heathfield police station in East Sussex on the morning of January 27 last year and told officers she had killed her children.

Earlier, jurors at Lewes Crown Court found her unanimously guilty of murder after hearing she had smothered them with their bedding the night before.

Wearing a light grey jumper and a grey and white striped scarf, Donnison stood up and leaned forward against the wall of the dock with her head bowed as she was given two life sentences.

Judge Mr Justice Nicol described the murders as “deliberate and wicked acts”.

He said: “You killed them, you who were their mother.

“Why you did this defies logical explanation.

“It seems it can only have something to do with your feelings for Paul Donnison, the children’s father and your former partner.”

He said jurors had rejected her defence that she was suffering from serious depression and was not in her right mind, adding that the “defenceless” children’s “asphyxiation was a gross breach of trust”.

Earlier Donnison chose to stay in the cells as the jury returned its unanimous verdict.

Mr Donnison, 48, looked strained and stared straight ahead as he sat in the public gallery flanked by members of his family.

The four-week trial heard that Donnison, who was in a distressed state with superficial cuts to her wrists when she went to the police station, was not able to tell officers where the children were.

A search of the area located them in the boot of her car, parked in Mill Close, Heathfield, around the corner from Meadowside, the former family home.

Prosecutors believe the reason it was parked there and not on the drive of the large detached house was because after killing the children, Donnison had planned to kill their father.

But jurors heard Mr Donnison was staying at the home of his new girlfriend Alison Shimmens, 48, that night.