Mom accused of killing her kids is 'fit to stand trial'

British authorities seem confident that Tania Clarence, the 42-year-old South African mother charged with killing her three disabled children, is mentally fit to stand trial.

When asked whether Tania, who wept at her court appearance on Friday, had been mentally evaluated, a spokesman for London's police force, said: "While I can't go into detail, if someone is deemed not mentally fit to be charged, then they will be sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

"Obviously, Mrs Clarence has appeared in court, so that answers the question."

Police were called to the Clarence home in Thetford Road, New Malden, on Tuesday evening.

Tania was arrested that evening, but only charged on Thursday. She was remanded in custody after charges were put to her at the Wimbledon Magistrate's Court.

Her husband Gary attended the hearing. It is thought to have been the first time the Clarences have seen each other since the death of three of their children.

Tania's voice broke as she tearfully confirmed her name, address and date of birth.

Gary, who was wearing a dark suit and white shirt, was hunched slightly forward in his chair and looked close to tears as he listened to proceedings.

His wife did not look across the court to him during the two-minute hearing.

After the court appearance, Gary was allowed to spend 10 minutes with his wife in her jail cell.

Family friend and spokesman Lloyd Marshall said Gary had been in a state of shock since learning of the killings of his three-year-old twin sons, Ben and Max, and four-year-old daughter, Olivia.

All three children suffered from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and were not expected to survive beyond the age of five.

Marshall confirmed that Friday's meeting was the first between the couple since the deaths of the three children.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said authorities had yet to finalise the indictment.

Tania, now formally charged with three counts of murder after days of investigation by specialist detectives, will make her next court appearance at the Old Bailey central criminal courts on Tuesday.

Investigations into the triple murders continue. "No formal cause of death has been established as yet," said a police spokesman.

Postmortems on the three children were still being carried out and results were "expected early next week".

The children were allegedly smothered in their pyjamas.

The couple spent about a year renovating their home to install a lift for their wheelchair-bound children, who needed specialist care every day. The three children had to be fed through tubes and their parents had to administer medicine hourly.

The South African High Commission in London said it had been in contact with the police "since we first heard of the matter at 9am on Wednesday".

"We have requested that Mrs Clarence be informed of our concern and we have offered our assistance if it should be required. In this respect, the High Commission cannot make any pronouncement on the sound physical health of Mrs Clarence or lack thereof, since we have not met her," said a spokesman.

Throughout the week, a picture of a woman under immense strain emerged from friends and neighbours.

Tania had devoted herself to providing for the special needs of her children.

"I doubt she's had a decent night's sleep in years," a friend told the Sunday Times, adding that "anyone who saw her could not help but be compassionate".

Tania was pregnant with the twins when the family discovered that Olivia had the fatal genetic condition.

Doctors warned her there was a 50% chance her twins also had the condition.

Tests confirmed the diagnosis when the boys were born and the couple had to confront the prospect that three of their children were unlikely to live beyond their fifth birthday.

Gary, a director at Investec in London, appears to have been unable to face identifying the bodies of his children. Police refused to officially name the victims until they had been identified by a relative. Failing which, a police spokesman said, a postmortem would be needed to identify the children.

Their names were officially released after the postmortem began on Thursday evening.

Marshall said Tania and Gary had met at the University of Stellenbosch.

"Tania is from Cape Town. I don't know her family very well. I only met Tania on three or four occasions.

"They have been in the UK for 19 years. She was a graphic designer and she gave that up to care for the children," Marshall said.

Gary was in South Africa to celebrate the eighth birthday of their older daughter, Taya. Father and daughter were at the family's holiday home near Bela-Bela.

Marshall said: "It is very difficult for them to travel with the three children because of the nature of their disability. The spinal atrophy really doesn't allow any muscle development so they could barely sit up." So Tania had stayed behind to care for the three youngest children.

Marshall said Gary's father, Brian, had died in October last year "which is what makes the timing particularly difficult for the family".

"They've coped so incredibly well with the news of the three children having this terrible genetic disease.

"The life expectancy aspect of it is so difficult to deal with because you know that you have about five years maximum. They did everything they could to give their children a happy life knowing that their flame would blow out all too soon."

Shock in London's 'Parkview'

The Clarence family tragedy has rocked the upmarket suburb of New Malden.

The suburb was described as "the equivalent of Parkview" [in Johannesburg's northern suburbs] by a Thetford Road neighbour, who also happens to be an expat South African.

"Most residents here earn a reasonable amount. Houses are very expensive here. There's the occasional burglary but no serious crime."

Nonetheless the police deployed additional officers in the suburb to "reassure" residents this week.

A barman at a local landmark said the tragedy had naturally become a talking point.

"The consensus is that these were mercy killings. She'd reached the end of her tether and had been watching them [the children] suffer."

New Malden, in the Kingston-upon-Thames borough of Surrey, is a commuter town with good transport links into central London.

It is populated by young professional families, the retired and semi-retired.

Like the Clarences, many of their neighbours renovate homes to meet their own requirements.

New Malden is also known for its Korea Town after thousands of South Korean expats flocked to the area when their ambassador took up residence in nearby Wimbledon, according to reports.

At the New Malden Golf Club, where Bentleys, Jaguars and Porsche SUVs populate the parking lot, inquiries about Gary Clarence - a golf enthusiast - were met with "we're not interested". - Marvin Meintjies

'Unbearable' burden for parents

As Tania Clarence is charged with the deaths of her three children, I spoke to two families about the difficulties of caring for a disabled child.

How do you describe life as a parent of a child with profound or life-limiting disabilities? "Inhumane. Insane. Pushed to the wire." Henrietta Spink veers from the language of despair to that of hope. "It has been an extraordinary journey," she says, with some positivity, of the past 26 years spent raising her two sons, both of whom need round-the-clock care. And then: "Our life has been destroyed."

Henrietta, 52, and her husband Michael, 57, an expert in Islamic art, understand better than most the Clarence tragedy.

"There have been times," says Henrietta, "when I have wished all four of us were dead. It is remorseless, unrelenting, a situation for which there is no manual, an emotional black hole."

Henrietta has cared for her sons Henry, 26, and Freddie, 22, since they were born. Henry is severely epileptic, cannot walk or talk, and is incontinent. He exists in a sort of stasis: an adult body suspended in the world of a three-month-old baby.

Freddie is autistic, hyperactive and, although 108kg and 1.75m tall, behaves like a three-year-old. Born with a diaphragmatic hernia - his stomach organs were in his chest at birth - he was placed on life support, where he suffered a stroke, which went undetected for 15 years.

Henrietta and Michael are wiped out with exhaustion. "Every night, one of the boys will need help at some point. Freddie wakes properly at about 4am or 5am, and from then on one of us is up monitoring him. Then I do six lots of washing because Henry is incontinent and I spend two hours a day cooking to ensure they have proper nutrition."

Managing both boys is utterly time-consuming, meaning it is impossible for either of them to hold down full-time employment, which adds to the financial worries.

Henrietta's friend Anne Jones (not her real name), who lives in west London, understands. Her son Robert, 26, was born with a rare defect where the band of white matter connecting the two hemispheres in the brain fails to develop normally.

"Robert doesn't speak - just the odd word, although he understands us well," Anne says. "But he has no concept of danger, so he must be watched 24 hours a day."

Anne's husband Jeremy, an architect, is still working at 70. The Spinks were forced to sell their Battersea home due to debts. "The financial strain is overwhelming, but Michael can't afford to fall apart," Henrietta says. "The longing to have time for one another, for sleep, is devastating. The loneliness of our situation is unbearable at times." - Victoria Lambert  ©The Daily Telegraph, London

No cure for deadly disease

Spinal muscular atrophy is a disease sometimes called "floppy baby syndrome".

It causes muscle weakness and progressive loss of movement as the nerve cells connecting the brain and spinal cord to the body's muscles break down over time.

Muscles used for activities such as crawling, walking, sitting up and moving the head become gradually weaker, but mental abilities remain unaffected.

In the most severe forms, fatal respiratory problems often develop early on and it is the leading cause of genetic death in infants.

Depending on its severity, children may need surgery, exercises and equipment to improve mobility and breathing. There is no cure.

The disease is caused by a faulty copy of a gene, which is activated when both parents carry it.

About one in every 40-60 people carries the gene.

It can be tested for during pregnancy, although the test can increase the risk of a miscarriage. - Source: The Daily Mail