A MOTHER who carried the lifeless body of her son into a police station killed him after suffering a catastrophic mental breakdown, a court was told yesterday.

Melanie Ruddell arrived at Peterlee police station, in east Durham, with her two-yearold son, Christy, on August 9.

Yesterday, she was detained under the Mental Health Act after admitting manslaughter.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the “caring, doting, loving mother” had strangled her toddler son, despite desperate efforts by her family to get help for her deteriorating mental health following the breakdown of her marriage.

Mr Justice McCombe sentenced the 39-year-old, of Dene View, Castle Eden, County Durham, to an indefinite hospital order, where she will receive treatment for her illness.

He said: “This case is truly a tragic one.”

Her husband, Alan Ruddell, who lives in the Easington area, said his estranged wife had been given a “suitable sentence”.

In a statement, he said: “Let us never lose sight of the facts that, due to the actions of a single person, Christy has been denied the chance to enjoy school, to make lasting friendships, go to his first football match, play cricket, to discover nature and witness the changing of seasons.

“He will never pass exams, nor his driving test and he will never know the joy of growing up amongst his family.”

Melanie Ruddell was originally charged with murder, but prosecutors accepted her guilty plea to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard how, in the days leading up to the tragedy, Ruddell’s family and friends knew she was in desperate need of help.

They made frantic efforts to get her help, including a trip to the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

But Ruddell refused to stay for the two-hour wait to undergo psychiatric assessment by the crisis team, who were busy with another urgent case.

Her mental state led to her having delusions that the only way to protect her son “from dangers that terrified her” was by taking her son’s life then her own.

Jamie Hill, mitigating, said Ruddell refused to stay at Hartlepool hospital because her illness meant she was “consumed by a desire to be with her son”. At the time of her death, neighbours said Alan and Melanie had been married for about two years, but had split six months before Christy’s death.

Mr Hill said Mrs Ruddell had not expressed any pity for herself in the aftermath of what she did and is consumed by grief at the loss of her boy – named after Irish folk singer Christy Moore.

After the hearing, Durham’s Crown prosecutor Steven Orange said: “This is a desperately sad case involving the tragic death of a young boy, Christy Ruddell, by the hands of his mother, Melanie.

“She was a caring, loving and devoted parent who, in the days before she took her son’s life, suffered the sudden onset of a dramatic and extremely serious psychological breakdown. This led to her having delusions and, as a result, she was extremely frightened and distressed.”

Detective Superintendent Adrian Green, the senior investigating officer in the case, said Ruddell would be kept in a secure hospital and treated for her mental problems.

He said: “If, and when, in due course it is felt that the illness has been treated, she can be discharged, but that discharge can be with specific conditions that she would abide by. She will be held in a secure psychiatric hospital in the North-East.”

The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it had completed an investigation into Ruddell’s contact with Northumbria Police and Durham Police in the lead-up to the tragedy. A decision has yet to be made on when the report will be released.