A WOMAN who battered her daughter to death and severely injured another child in a hammer attack was yesterday ordered to be detained at the State Hospital at Carstairs.
Ann Dunn, 36, admitted
the culpable homicide of five-year-old Erin Gilmour at the home where they lived in Stonehouse, Lanarkshire, last year.
The court was told that Erin suffered more than a dozen blows to her head with a claw hammer and died from extensive fracturing of the skull on September 25.
Dunn, who pleaded guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility, also admitted assaulting a 10-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, at the same time as the attack on her daughter.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Leeona Dorrian QC ordered that Dunn should be detained at the State Hospital at Carstairs after reading a report on the woman's mental health.
She said: ''I'm satisfied in terms of the reports this is a case in which a hospital order should be made.
''I'm also satisfied it is appropriate that the order be to the state hospital on the basis that conditions of special security are required.''
The case was heard at the High Court in Glasgow six months ago.
The court heard that Dunn's upstairs neighbours had been awakened by ''whimpering'' and the sound of blows coming from the room below on the night of the attack.
Advocate depute Keith Stewart told the court that Dunn and the two girls were found in the house the day after the attack by a relative.
Dunn's sister Carol McIntyre asked her husband, Scott, to visit the house in Union Street, Stonehouse, after she was unable to contact her sister by telephone.
When Mr McIntyre arrived at the house, he found Dunn and the two victims lying in separate rooms.
Erin's father arrived at the scene at one stage but was stopped from entering the house by bystanders.
The 10-year-old was taken to a hospital neurological unit with pieces of bone sticking out of her skull. The court heard she has made an excellent recovery but has been scarred for life.
Mr Stewart said: ''Scott McIntyre entered the room occupied by the deceased, Erin Gilmour, and found her lying in her bed partially under the covers.
''Her condition was such that he immediately surmised she was dead. Lying on the bed beside her was a claw hammer.''
Mr Stewart said a search of the house found the older victim lying on the floor of a bedroom covered in blood, and Dunn was in her own bedroom.
Dunn made no response when asked questions by Mr McIntyre and was taken to Wishaw General Hospital amid concerns she had taken an overdose of paracetamol.
She told medical staff in the hospital: ''I killed them, I don't want to be here any more.''
Dunn was later transferred to the psychiatric State Hospital at Carstairs suffering from a severe form of depression.
Mr Stewart said she had separated from Erin's father in December 2000. The court also heard that Dunn was suffering from a severe form of depression and was still coming to terms with her actions.
Defence solicitor-advocate Desmond Finnieston had earlier told the court: ''Miss Dunn was a very caring and concerned mother and everyone who knew her could speak to that.
''The suddenness and shock of the incident made it all the more horrible.''
He said that if and when Dunn came to realise the tragedy and awfulness of the event it would be ''a real life sentence for her''.
Dunn had been prescribed medication for neurotic depression, but months before the fatal attack she stopped taking the drugs because she thought she did not need them.
The killer sat looking drawn in the dock before being returned to the state hospital.
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