A 47-year-old mother in London who murdered her two young sons while in a psychotic episode has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Cara Alexander, 47, was previously found guilty of murdering Elijah Thomas, 2, and Marley Thomas, 5, at their home in Dagenham, east London.

He murdered their children in December 2022.

Had smoked cannabis

As reported in a report in the Independent, the judge said the 47-year-old was smoking “skunk” (a type of cannabis) on the night of the incident, as she had been using the drug daily for several weeks,

At the same time, the judge said that in her state at the time she killed her sons intentionally, as she held their heads under water for “up to a minute or two”. The 47-year-old then dried their lifeless bodies and laid them in clean pyjamas together on the bed.

The judge concluded that before the incident, Kara Alexander was a loving mother and that she was in a psychotic episode due to cannabis use, a condition she had been in again in 2016.

In addition, the judge noted that although the 47-year-old had spoken to two members of her social circle about her cannabis use, “neither of them warned her of any danger”.

Father discovered the lifeless bodies

Shelvin Thomas, Alexander’s former partner and the children’s father, was due to take the children away for the weekend, but became concerned when she did not respond to his texts. Upon arriving home, Alexander told him the children were asleep and closed the door.

When he insisted on entering, he found the bodies of the two boys lying side by side on their beds, covered up to their shoulders.

“He touched Marley’s cheek and it was frozen,” said prosecutor Philip Evans, describing the horror of the father, who immediately called authorities, screaming:  “Killed my children.”

It is noted that after the children were discovered, Alexander fled and was arrested an hour later.