A woman has been arrested after she admitted to charges of manslaughter of her two-year-old son, Reid.
According to some news sources, Natalie Steele, drowned her two-year-old son in the bath to send him to heaven after becoming paranoid that her family was possessed by evil spirits.
Her son was found unresponsive at her family home at Parkwood Heights, Bridgend, and was declared dead when they arrived at the hospital.
Steele, who had recently converted to Christianity, had been delusional months before the killing and claimed she reportedly saw floating orbs and demons, according to reports. She has now been detained under the Mental Health Act. After her arrest, she told the police she needed to protect her son by sending him to heaven.
Police mentioned that she had to be admitted to the hospital from prison because she refused to eat or drink, telling police she had to fast for 40 days so she could join her son, Reid in heaven.
Two forensic psychiatrists agreed Steele was suffering from an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness at the time of the killing. Due to this, the prosecutor did not seek a murder trial, citing her mental health challenges.
Detaining Steele under Section 37 and 41 of the Mental Health Act at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Michael Fitton QC described the case as “a profound human tragedy”.
“It was you (Steele) who loved (Reid) so dearly that caused his loss of life,” the Judge said. “You did so when you were suffering a period of serious and severe mental illness, that is the clear opinion of the professionals”.
According to the Judge, Steele was subject to visual and auditory hallucinations, and she had paranoid beliefs. He noted that Steele was operating under the terrible mistake that her own family that loved Reid as dearly as she did, wanted to harm him.
The nature of the judge’s order means Steele will not be sent to prison when she is deemed fit to be released from the hospital, per reports.
Events Leading to the Murder
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard Steele had told her mother Amanda Prescott, that she had been seeing lights and told her “Demons are dark and real”.
The night before Reid’s death, the defendant had been on a camping trip with her church in New Quay, West Wales, then she demanded to be immediately baptized. A member the congregation, Heidi Ackland, who was not on the trip, disclosed that Steele persuaded her to come and pick her up to take her home.
Ms. Ackland described Steele as “speaking gibberish” and telling her that she had to be a sacrifice. On the journey home, Ms. Ackland noticed that Steele was compulsively checking on her son in her car seat in the back, saying things like “I love you Reid” and kept taking her own seatbelt off.
Ms. Ackland noted that she feared the defendant might try and jump out of moving vehicle while the child was in the car. Later that evening, after dropping Steele at home, she received a text from her saying: “I’ve done something terrible, I had to protect Reid from my family”.
Steele’s mother, Amanda Prescott, told police her daughter had taken her grandson for his bath at around 6 pm but came downstairs at around 7:30 pm saying: “I think I’ve done it”.
Mrs. Prescott disclosed that she went “into panic mode” and rushed upstairs to find Reid unconscious and wrapped in a towel on the bathroom floor.
Steele later told police officers she had been playing ‘cups of tea’ with Reid in the bath and had breastfed him before holding him underwater.
According to the defendant, she was really worried about her family, saying they had “creepy eyes” and that she had problems with spirits as those “spirits had been touching her”. She told her mother: “I felt I had to protect him from you”.
In her police interviews, she said her mother, step-father, and siblings had “big eyes” and “contorted faces”, and she believed they were possessed by demons.
After passing the sentence, Judge Fitton offered his condolences to the family, telling them that they carry no blame or responsibility whatsoever for not recognizing the risk Steele posed to her son.
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