Horror of night Exeter mum killed son
THE moments after Emma Manser smothered her son with a pillow and then attempted to kill her mother in a frenzied attack have been described at an inquest into the toddler’s death.
The 24-year-old had been discharged from the Cedars mental health unit at Wonford House Hospital in Exeter just days before she killed four-year-old Ryan at his grandmother Wendy Richard’s home in Whipton, Exeter.
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UNFOLDING TRAGEDY: An inquest has heard the details of the night Emma Manser killed her son Ryan, four
Family members relived the nightmare of his death at the two-day inquest, which is expected to finish today.
The inquest heard that Ryan was on the child protection register and would often stay for long periods with Miss Richards when Emma was unwell.
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In April 2007, the young mum was staying the night at Miss Richard’s flat in Mincinglake Road when she woke her mother up and told her she had killed Ryan.
Giving evidence at the inquest, Miss Richards told how she desperately tried to give life-saving first aid to her grandson before she was attacked by Emma.
“After about an hour I was woken up and I think it was hearing my door go,” she said.
“I saw Emma was just standing there. I said: ‘What do you want?’ She said: ‘What have I done to Ryan? Look what I’ve done to him’. I could see something was wrong. She was icy and her eyes were huge and empty. The way she said it was creepy.
“I rushed into the living room, I was feeling sick. I knew I was going into something not nice. I could smell sick and Ryan was a horrible colour. I went over and grabbed him and I screamed for someone to get an ambulance. I tried pumping on his chest.”
Miss Richards told the inquest that Emma grabbed a knife from the kitchen and plunged it into her shoulder.
“She went into the kitchen and got a knife and said: ‘I will kill you now’,” she said. “I felt something go in my shoulder. I didn’t know she had stabbed me. I saw her go to stab me again, I was screaming for my partner Stefan.”
The inquest heard that Ms Manser, who had suffered from mental health problems for several years, had spoken of wanting to kill members of her family, including Ryan.
But Miss Richards said that was “just something she used to say”.
Emma was only allowed to spend time with Ryan under supervision under an agreement between social services and Miss Richards.
Despite this, the inquest heard that Emma would regularly sleep next to Ryan in the living room of her mother’s flat whenever she stayed there.
Miss Richards said that questions were never asked about the sleeping arrangements.
She said: “She just wasn’t allowed to take him out on her own.”
The inquest heard that Ms Manser believed she was the “Messiah who had been put on earth to do God’s work”. And she spoke of self-sacrifice and also of sacrificing Ryan.
Dr Andrew Blewett, consultant psychiatrist at the Cedars, told the inquest that Ms Manser had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had symptoms of a personality disorder.
She was arrested and charged with Ryan’s murder and the attempted murder of her mother Wendy and placed in The Dene, in West Sussex, a secure mental health unit, but was later found hanging in her room.
The inquest into Ryan’s death continues today.
Comments
by BillyW
Sunday, January 06 2013, 10:39PM
“Its time this unit was shut down. Staff at the Cedars are corrupt and unprofessional and it would appear that it is okay for a nurse to call a patient a disgrace and tell her to grow up - then when reported she denies it all.
Why is it that the ones who dish it out can never take it back. Grow up nurse LW you're the disgrace.”
by Michelle, St Thoms, Exeter
Sunday, January 31 2010, 2:38PM
“I have to say i was shocked when i heard about what had happened as i used to live close to the family when they lived in whipton. As Emma was only a child herself then and can say she never seemed a troubled little girl as she used to play with my daughter when they where kids. It came as a very BIG shock to me and would never of put Emma down to of done this sort of thing, so it just goes to show how she obvouisly needed help. I am saddened for her mum and family as no matter what Wendy lost not just a grandson but a daughter to. Like i said i knew the family and would never of expected this to of happened to a little girl that used to play up and down our street always with a smile on her face. Emma obvouisly had something troubling her later on in her life and i am saddened by this as the little girl i knew would never of took her sons life, so i ask myself "did she really get the help she obvouisly needed?"
My thoughts are with all the family and hope that people will understand that Emma wasnt a nasty person she just obvouisly needed help for a illness that seems to me " took" over her life and "out of her control".. After all who no's what really makes us snap.....”
by Mrs S, Exeter
Friday, January 29 2010, 1:03PM
“Such a tragedy, that surely could have been avoided.
Emma's mother said at the inquest that she felt Emma had been released to early and that she kept going on about the Messiah and sacraficing herself and little Ryan YET she was left alone with him.”
by Vicky, Exeter
Friday, January 29 2010, 11:56AM
“I have mental Health problems myself and think the support i get in Exeter from the Mental Health Team team is excellent, I am also a mother so Michelle if you know anyone wit problems that is afraid to have kids tehn please tell them the support is amazing and improving all the time.”
by michelle, exeter
Friday, January 29 2010, 11:29AM
“Yes Gribble there are people who are sadly a risk themselves and others and alot of the time they dont get the help they need or deserve. There are also people out there who suffer from mental health problems that are a direct result of childhood abuse and who would love to have children but wont because they fear child protection would take the child into care just because they have mental health problems. Sadly there is alot of misconceptions about mental health problems but most are not stark raving mad killers who need to be locked up for their own safety and the safety of others. Mental health problems affect 1 in 4 people and can affect anyone at any given time in their life. Just because they have mental health problems does not always mean they are a risk to others. With the right treatment and support people with mental health issues can and do lead normal lives and some hide their problems so well you wouldnt know they were ill.”
by vicky, Exeter
Friday, January 29 2010, 11:21AM
“Emma loved that little boy so much, it really is a double tragedy i hope they are together again now and at peace.”
by Robyn, Bodmin Cornwall
Friday, January 29 2010, 10:38AM
“@@@ Gribble
Since they closed our local unit
the poor souls Wander aimlessly up and down Bodmin High street or Congulate in the local cafe
nowhere to go nothing to do”
by GRIBBLE, COWICK ST
Friday, January 29 2010, 8:49AM
“Since they closed all the units
and places for people with mental health problems this has become a major problem.
no one seems to give a dam about the people who need help the most
There are people on the street
who are a danger to the public and themself.”