A mother accused of killing her three young disabled children wept in court as she faced charges of murder. Tania Kim Clarence, 42, from New Malden, south-west London, appeared distraught in the glass-panelled dock at Wimbledon magistrates court on Friday.
Clarence is charged with three counts of murder in connection with the deaths of her four-year-old daughter Olivia and three-year-old twin sons Max and Ben. The children were found dead at the family home on Tuesday night. Friends said all three suffered from spinal muscular atrophy, a life-limiting progressive disease that can cause fatal respiratory problems.
During the brief two-minute hearing, Clarence struggled to give her name, address and date of birth, her voice barely audible. Wearing a dark grey shirt, she sobbed as the charges were read aloud. Her husband Gary, 43, a director of City bank Investec, sat red-eyed in the public gallery, supported by relatives. He is understood to have been on holiday in South Africa with the couple's eldest daughter when the children died.
Fiona Abbott, chair of the magistrates bench, said the case could only be dealt with by a crown court and sent it to the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing on 9 May. A bail hearing has been listed for 29 April. Clarence was remanded in custody and led weeping from the dock. Postmortem results from Great Ormond Street hospital have not yet been released.
