‘Monster mum’ Louise Porton: ‘She killed her girls – then tried to sell their clothes for £15′

Louise Porton was jailed for the ‘evil’ murders of her two baby daughters. Closer speaks to psychologist Jane McCartney about the harrowing case…

When Louise Porton, 23, dialled 999 and told the operator that her three-year-old daughter Lexi wasn’t breathing, the responder said she sounded “calm”. Paramedics found Lexi dead and rigor mortis had already set in.

Eighteen days later, Lexi’s 17-month-old sister Scarlett also died. Again, by the time paramedics reached her, Scarlett had been dead some time. A post-mortem on both children found they had died as a result of deliberate airway obstruction. Porton was arrested and later found guilty of strangling her daughters.

Psychologist Dr Jane McCartney tells Closer, “The case is so shocking because it goes against nature. Mothers are the ones who give life – so when they take it away, it’s all the more horrifying. Porton tried to present herself as a loving mother, but those close to her believed she saw her children as burdens who got in the way of her work as an escort and fetish model."

Her former landlord, Leigh-Anne Bradley, said she would often look after Porton’s children, sometimes for the “whole day”. She said, “She’d do whatever she could not to have them.”

And texts Porton sent to her sister mentioned giving her children sleeping drugs, or leaving them alone while she went out to “go and f**k lads”.

Shockingly, in the days before her daughters’ murders, and even on the night Lexi died, Porton had searched the internet for articles including “five weird things that happen after you die” and for “how long after drowning can someone be resuscitated”.

Toddler Lexi was hospitalised twice in the days before her death, with Porton claiming she suffered fits. During one admission, Porton shamelessly took explicit photos in the hospital toilets to send to a client, and exchanged numbers with a security guard.

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On the day of Lexi’s death, Porton claimed she had found her unconscious in her bed. At the time, a post-mortem found no natural cause of death but raised nothing as suspicious. When a friend asked about Lexi’s death, Porton joked, “I had two, now down to one.” And when she went to arrange her daughter’s funeral, a staff member found her laughing on her phone to a friend.

Before Lexi was laid to rest on 1 February, Porton killed Scarlett in a hotel room where the pair were staying, before carrying her body to her car. Porton then called the non-emergency 111 number and claimed Scarlett had stopped breathing in her car seat.

When her body was examined during a post-mortem, it was determined her neck had been compressed.

Days after her arrest for the deaths of both girls, Porton posted a picture online with the caption “f**kthehaters” and “smile”. She also advertised Lexi and Scarlett’s clothes for sale on Facebook for £20 and even offered to deliver them to buyers; she later dropped the price to £15.

After a four-week trial, Porton was found guilty of the murders of her daughters and sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve a minimum of 32 years.

Dr McCartney says, “Filicide, where a parent kills their own child, is not unheard of. But more often than not, at the time of the murder, the mother or father is in a state of psychosis, which causes hallucinations, delusions and confused thoughts.

"But in Porton’s case, there are no obvious signs of this. What she does exhibit are narcissistic traits – self-importance and little empathy – and signs of borderline personality disorder, which is categorised by emotional instability and impulsive behaviour.

“Like Rosemary West, Porton seems to have lacked the ability to be a loving mother. She was clearly capable of looking after them, as they didn’t show obvious signs of neglect, but it seems impossible to believe that she loved or cared about them.

"It’s as if she had no feelings towards them at all – they appeared to have meant nothing to her apart from being a hindrance.”

When Porton’s trial began at Bristol Crown Court last month, Porton admitted she found it difficult to show emotion or form emotional attachments.

In a victim impact statement, the children’s father, Chris Draper, from whom Porton was separated, said he was “broken”.

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Sentencing her, Judge Justice Mrs Amanda Yip said it was clear Porton had attempted to murder both daughters before their deaths and the murders were “calculated”. After the trial, Porton’s mother Sharon called her daughter a “monster”.

She seemingly had a happy childhood, with her mother saying, “She’s not the happy, loving girl I brought up. I no longer consider her my daughter.”

Dr McCartney seems to agree. She says, “Porton was obviously only interested in herself. It’s shocking."

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