Mentally ill mother who threw toddler from flats says God told her to ‘sacrifice’ him

Gemma Procter believed she was being told by God to “sacrifice” toddler son Elliot, who suffered fatal injuries at the bottom of the Newcastle House flats in the Barkerend area of Bradford, West Yorkshire, in October last year.

In the moments following the incident, witnesses said Procter erupted into tears, before calming down and saying that she had given the boy “to Jesus Christ”.

Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday how the 23-year-old was suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia at the time, with her condition significantly deteriorating following her decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Procter had been due to go on trial for murder, but in April admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, a plea which was accepted by prosecutors on account of her illness.

She and fellow family members broke down in tears on Friday as Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told her that the incident on October 21 last year was a “tragic” case.

The judge told her: “I am absolutely satisfied that nobody, including yourself, had any concerns or pre-warning that you could or would do what you did.

“Your offending, I am satisfied, was due to this extreme illness. The harm is off the scale, but the culpability is not.

“Nobody thinks that you were ever a bad mother and you were never a bad mother to Elliot.”

He added that while the boy was very much the “primary victim”…