News

Woman stabs her baby 100 times

April 04, 2009 Edition 1

A US woman who believed she was being stalked by a cult has been charged with stabbing her two-year-old daughter 100 times with scissors, her lawyer and police have said, and can be heard yelling "Die! Die!" on an emergency call.

Susan Johnson's screams can be heard on the call made by a security guard who helped to subdue her in a laundry room at a block of flats on Wednesday night.

Johnson, 38, from Turner Falls near Boston, also used an electrical cord from a dryer to try to strangle the toddler, police said, but the security guard and two residents separated mother and child just before police arrived.

"I heard a woman screaming very loudly that she was going to 'Kill, kill, I have to kill you, Die, die, die,'" said resident Real Belliveau, 65, who lives just down the corridor from the laundry room. He was watching TV when he heard the commotion.

When he ran to the laundry room he thought the child was dead because she was limp, covered in blood and had the cord around her neck.

The girl had as many as 100 wounds to her head, neck and torso, but many were superficial, police spokesman Neil Erickson said.

The child, who is in the custody of state child welfare authorities, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.

The US Department of Children and Families made a check on the girl at her home in Turners Falls, about 55km west of Gardner, where the stabbing occurred, the day before the attack.

It's unclear what Johnson was doing in the building. She has family in Gardner, which is about 113km west of Boston, defence attorney Peter Binder said.

Johnson has a history of depression and had not been taking her medication, Binder said, adding she does not remember the attack in the laundry room.

Johnson is being held without bail on a number of charges, including attempted murder, and was ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation. - Sapa-AP

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