Kate Bex QC defends in tragic case where loving daughter killed her mother during a psychotic episode

October 8, 2021

Ms Laura Van Marle, 41, who had been charged with murder, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Laura has suffered from severe mental health issues since 2010, which doctors believed to be schizophrenia. On 26 September last year she travelled to her parents home, having listened to the voices in her head telling her to kill her mother believing it to be an act of mercy. At Worcester Crown Court, Kate Bex QC successfully argued that her responsibility for the offence was low because she was acutely unwell and that the appropriate outcome was a hospital order.

Kate Bex QC was instructed by Ed Middleton of GCLaw, Hereford.

Read newstory here: [Hereford Times]

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