Mother killed her four-year-old daughter and partner to "stop world being taken over by vampires"

A mother killed her partner and their four-year-old daughter to "prevent the world being taken over by vampires", a court heard. Shelley Christopher, 36, stabbed 42-year-old Richard Brown, 29 times and daughter Sophia six times before inserting wooden objects into their bodies to stop them turning into the fictional demons.
Today the 36-year-old, who was on trial on two counts of murder and one attempted murder, was found not guilty by reason of insanity on all counts at the Old Bailey.
Christopher also attacked another child and put a pencil in her body, but despite her injuries, the girl, who cannot be identified, survived, prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told jurors.
Two days before the killings in February, Christopher went to a Mental Health Unit where she told staff that someone was "out to get" her. But she refused pleas by a doctor and nurse to stay at the unit and went home. Opening the trial, Mr Aylett told jurors: "I'm afraid that this is a distressing case which you will find both terrible and tragic. "Ms Christopher was later to tell a psychiatrist that, on the day of the killings, she had received a signal instructing her to kill her family in order to prevent the world from being taken over by vampires." "The signal had come from a light bulb in the ceiling. "She had done - or tried to do - what she was told.
"After she had attacked each of them with a knife, the light bulb had told her to put something wooden into each of their chests in order to stop them from becoming vampires."
The prosecutor went on: "That Ms Christopher must have been mentally unwell at this time is borne out by the findings of the doctors who examined the victims.
"From Richard's chest cavity, the pathologist recovered part of a child's paint brush. "The pathologist who examined Sophia's body retrieved part of a pencil." A psychiatrist concluded that Christopher, who is now in a secure mental hospital, had been suffering from a psychotic illness - most probably paranoid schizophrenia - when she killed her partner and child. Mr Aylett told jurors that when a defendant enters a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, it is for them, not a judge or psychiatrist, to decide the case on the evidence. The jury deliberated for less than ten minutes before returning verdicts of not guilty by reason of insanity on all counts. Dressed in a black jumper and grey trousers, Christopher showed no emotion as she stood for the verdicts.