Jake and Chloe were described as ‘miracle babies’ (Picture: SWNS)
An ‘evil’ mother who killed her infant twins by drowning them in a bath may soon be ‘released’ without spending a ‘single day’ behind bars.
Samantha Ford, 41, was sentenced to 10 years in custody after admitting to drowning 23-month-olds Jake and Chloe at her Margate, Kent, home in 2018.
She has remained at a psychiatric hospital since, and her husband Steven revealed she will be freed on Boxing Day – the fifth anniversary of the killings.
‘HM Prison and Probation Service have confirmed that on December 26, 2023, this child killer will be released without serving a single day in prison,’ Steven tweeted yesterday morning.
‘On the 5th anniversary of their murders, she will be released.
‘I still can’t get my divorce from this evil woman because she holds all the cards.’
Ford was handed two 10-year sentences to run concurrently by London’s Old Bailey in August 2019 after pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
For Steven, Jake and Chloe were ‘miracle babies’ born after four gruelling rounds of IVF treatment while the couple were living in Qatar.
They moved back to Ashford in early 2018, but Ford kicked Steven out as she became obsessed with losing their ‘perfect’ life in the Arabian peninsula.
Steven refused to move back in, with Ford becoming fixated on winning him back and even messaging him: ‘If this continues, it’s going to lead down a horrible path.’
Ford’s parents, Tony and Colette Emptage, spoke at an earlier inquest for their grandchildren that Ford has been suffering from ‘serious mental illness’.
Steven Ford has spent years trying to divorce his wife (Picture: Steven Ford / SWNS)
‘The deaths of our grandchildren Chloe and Jake was the worst pain that any family could ever endure, we will never recover from the loss of their precious lives,’ they said in a statement.
‘They were beloved and much-wanted children, and evidence given to the coroner has shown that Samantha was a loving and devoted mother to them.’
The Old Bailey heard during Ford’s trial – in which she denied murder – how she Googled ‘how to drown someone’ in the weeks before the killings.
She drowned her children in a bath and drove her car into the back of a lorry along the A299, the court heard.
Doctors described to the court how the killings were, they claimed, the result of the mental stress of Ford’s marriage ending.
She soon developed a ‘depressive illness,’ Judge Andrew Edis said, according to sentencing remarks.
Her actions, he added, were a ‘twisted act of vengeance’.
Jake and Chloe Ford were just 23 months old when they were killed (Picture: Steven Ford / SWNS)
‘The horror of what happened does not need any explanation by me. Anyone with any imagination can envisage for themselves what must have happened in that bathroom,’ he told her.
‘You knew it would devastate (your husband) and I’m sure that’s one reason why you did it.’
But Ford escaped from a double murder conviction after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted her guilty pleas to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
She was dubbed not fit enough to be sent to prison, however, and was instead sent to a psychiatric hospital.
‘I do not accept that this means that you were not to blame for what you
did, but your culpability is much less than it would be if you were not ill,’ the judge said.
‘If you were not ill, the sentences would be life imprisonment with very long minimum terms.’
The twins were conceived after four rounds of IVF in Qatar (Picture: Steven Ford / SWNS)
Steven has since welcomed a new baby into the world with his new partner (Picture: Steven Ford / SWNS)
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: ‘Our thoughts remain with Mr Ford and his family given the unimaginable pain and grief they have endured.
‘Samantha Ford continues to serve the sentence that the court handed down.’
It’s understood that under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act, a clinical decision may keep Ford in the hospital for a further three to four months.
If any further offences are committed during the five years remaining of her sentence, she is liable to be recalled to prison.
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‘I still can’t get my divorce from this evil woman because she holds all the cards.’