Last year, Tania Clarence admitted the manslaughter of her three severely disabled children on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The details were widely reported at the time: that she smothered her three-year-old twin sons Ben and Max, and daughter Olivia, aged four, in a “major depressive episode”, and then took painkiller tablets and drank a bottle of wine in an attempt to take her own life. She was discovered at home bleeding and crying.
The judge in the trial said Clarence, who had a history of mental illness, was “vulnerable” and detained her under a hospital order. This week, the Mail on Sunday waited for her to be on temporary psychiatric release, stood outside the family home, and took photos of her and her young daughter. Or, as the sub-heading in yesterday’s paper put it: got the exclusive “first picture of banker’s wife at centre of tragedy with her only surviving child”.
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