A mother who drowned her two young sons in the bath has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of more than 21 years.
Kara Alexander, 47, killed Elijah Thomas, two, and Marley Thomas, five, at their home in Dagenham, east London, in December 2022.
A jury at Kingston Crown Court had previously found her guilty of two counts of murder, charges she denied.
A post-mortem determined they died as a result of drowning or suffocation.
Kara Alexander has been jailed for a minimum of 21 years
Met Police
At trial, she claimed that their deaths were accidental after she placed them in the bath and fell asleep.
Selvin Thomas, the boys' father, was due to have them that weekend but became increasingly concerned when he did not hear back from the 47-year-old.
When he arrived at her home on Cornwallis Road, she told him that his sons were upstairs sleeping.
He sprinted ran to the boys' bedroom and found their bodies lying side-by-side on their lower bunk bed.
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Police searched for an hour for the 47-year-old before they found her and arrested her
PA
Prosecutor Philip Evans KC said: "They were bunched up together and it looked like they were asleep.
"They had the duvet up to their shoulders, only their faces were visible. He touched Marley’s face, on his right cheek, and he was freezing cold and hard. He knew immediately that they were dead."
When Thomas came downstairs to call for help, Alexander had already run away.
Emergency services then attended the scene, though by the time they arrived, the boys had been dead for hours.
Police searched for an hour for the 47-year-old before they found her and arrested her.
A jury at Kingston Crown Court had previously found her guilty of two counts of murder
PAAt Kingston Crown Court today, Justice Bennathan sentenced Alexander to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years and 252 days.
Alexander said that she had placed them in the bath before falling asleep, however prosecutors against this.
They said the boys could not have accidentally drowned and that the only reasonable explanation for their deaths was that Alexander murdered them.
Samantha Yelland, a senior Crown prosecutor in the CPS London Homicide Unit, previously said the boys' family and friends had been left "completely devastated" over their deaths.
She added: "It is unimaginable to think what those poor children went through in their final moments.
"It is a parent's job to keep their children safe and Kara Alexander not only failed to do that, but robbed them of their lives."
