Mentally-ill mum killed kids on unsupervised visit

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) A father accused social workers of ''frogmarching'' his two children to their deaths by ignoring his fears and allowing them to stay with their severely mentally-ill mother who went on to kill them.

Vivian Gamor, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and a delusional disorder in which she believed the children had been swapped at birth, bludgeoned her 10-year-old son to death and suffocated her three-year-old daughter.

The children's father Jimi Ogunkoya demanded a full inquiry into why psychiatrists, doctors and the social services had allowed his former partner an unsupervised overnight visit.

He had repeatedly tried to stop Gamor having contact with the children, Antoine and Kenniece Gamor-Ogunkoya, after she became ill but was told by the authorities it would be viewed as ''kidnap'' if he prevented their mother from seeing them.

''I know if she was ill the kids wouldn't have been there because social workers are supposed to protect children,'' he said in a statement read to London's Old Bailey court.

''So if she is diagnosed as mentally ill that means that the system that I obeyed has frogmarched my children to their deaths.'' The court heard Gamor, 29, was admitted to Homerton Hospital in east London in September last year but she hoodwinked doctors and social workers into believing she was taking medication for her mental illness and was released in October.

Social services then allowed her to see her children again even though her severe mental illnessremained.

Gamor believed her father was God and her twin brother Jesus.

She was also convinced her two children were still born and the children she killed were swapped at birth by doctors.

In January this year, Gabor called police who found her son beaten to death with a claw hammer, and her daughter lying on a bed with clingfilm around her head.

Judge Peter Rook ordered Ghanaian-born Gamor, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, to be detained under the Mental Health Act without a time limit.

''This is a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided if the children had not been allowed unsupervised access to the mother,'' the judge said.

Hackney and City Safeguarding Board has commissioned an independent inquiry into the case, which is due to conclude next month.

Reuters CS GC1000