Man faces loss of home after wife who drowned their children starts divorce bid from jail
A heartbroken father could lose his home after his wife, who killed their twin son and daughter, launched a divorce bid from a psychiatric unit where she's being held.
38-year-old Samantha Ford was put behind bars last year in connection with the drowning deaths of Jake and Chloe, both 23 months old, in the bath of their Kent residence on Boxing Day 2018, the Daily Mirror reports.
During her trial at the Old Bailey, Samantha's actions were described as a twisted act of vengeance against her estranged husband Steven Ford.
The horror mom was jailed for 10 years after she entered a guilty plea of manslaughter by diminished responsibility. The judge ordered that she would serve time at a psychiatric unit until she's deemed mentally fit for prison.
But the children's devastated father has now bemoaned that he could potentially lose the Charing, Ashford house he shared with Jake and Chloe if Samantha continues pushing for a divorce.
NHS officials confirmed that Samantha sent her husband an email from the Trevor Gibbens Unit in Maidstone, where she is being held, to pursue divorce proceedings and explore the option of selling the property.
"I've been advised that it will cost around £30,000 in legal fees for me to get divorced," Steven said. "I can't afford it — I'm not even close — but I have no choice. A straight forward divorce costs much less, but it's the settlement part that's costing the money as it's likely to go to court."
"I do not want to lose my home," he added.
According to Steven, he had already started preparing for divorce, but Samantha's bid will make it complicated and expensive.
"I don't know what grounds she could possibly have, but it's clear she wants to punish me as much as possible and ruin my life," he said. "She has destroyed me financially, professionally and mentally."
"It's frightening to think I could lose my home after everything I've had to deal with," he continued. "I worked very hard to build a life for me and my family and my home is all that's left. To lose that too would finish me."
Last year, the Old Bailey heard that in the weeks leading up to the twins' deaths, Samantha had Googled how to drown someone. Meanwhile, one psychologist concluded she was a "narcissist" who was "trying to appear more severely ill than she is."
Furthermore, it emerged that the "materialistic" mother was reportedly disgruntled that she lost her "perfect life" in Qatar after the family moved back to Kent.
Just hours after killing her children, she left a suicide note and attempted to take her own life by driving into a lorry.
And while a full inquest into the deaths of Samantha's children was due to be held last September, it was delayed after her legal team pushed for a wider investigation into the support she received before the tragedy.
Finally, the coroner decided to hold an Article 2 hearing, which is an enhanced inquest held in cases where "the State or its agents have failed to protect the deceased against a human threat or other risks."