Mother: I’ve done something terrible... I’ve killed the kids

A mother stabbed her teenage daughters to death to "wreak havoc" on her ex-husband, a court heard today.

Hotel worker Rekha Kumari-Baker stabbed her 16-year-old daughter Davina 39 times as the girls slept at home then turned to Jasmine Baker, 13, and attacked her, the jury was told.

Prosecutor John Farmer said Kumari-Baker had been determined to take revenge on her former husband, David Baker.

Kumari-Baker, 41, had taken her daughters on a shopping trip to the Lakeside Centre near Thurrock, Essex, on the day of their deaths in June 2007.

That night at her home in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, she lashed out with a knife she bought at a local Asda store, the court heard.

After the killings Kumari-Baker got dressed and went out twice in her car before ringing a friend, who was a special constable, to say: "I have done something terrible."

Mr Farmer told the jury that Kumari-Baker later said to the special constable: "I have killed the kids, the children are dead."

In another conversation with the officer, she is alleged to have said: "I stabbed them with knives from the kitchen. This is terrible. At least the children are safe now, nobody else can hurt them."

Kumari-Baker later denied making the comments. At Cambridge crown court today she pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.

Mr Justice Bean told jurors that Kumari-Baker's defence lawyers would argue that she was guilty only of manslaughter on the grounds of her diminished responsibility because she was suffering at the time from a "serious abnormality of mind".

Kumari-Baker had worked at a hotel near her home and her daughters were educated at two Cambridgeshire schools.

The court heard there was "much contention" between Kumari-Baker and Mr Baker after their divorce.

Mr Farmer said there were implications that Kumari-Baker had planned to commit suicide and wanted to "wreak havoc" on the life of her ex-husband by killing the girls.

The trial is expected to last at least two weeks.