The grieving father of ‘miracle’ IVF twins killed by their ‘narcissist’ mother has vowed to fight for justice, after she was jailed for just ten years.
Samantha Ford drowned the 23-month-old toddlers in the bath on Boxing Day in a ‘twisted act of vengeance’ after the family were forced to move back to Kent from Qatar.
After dressing them and placing their bodies in their cots, she ploughed her car into the back of a lorry in a failed attempt to kill herself.
Just hours later her estranged husband Steven Ford, 36, received a knock on his door from police officers to deliver the devastating news.
Last month she admitted two counts of manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was jailed for ten years for killing Chloe and Jake at their home in Margate, Kent.
Samantha Ford drowned the 23-month-old toddlers in the bath on Boxing Day in a ‘twisted act of vengeance’ after the family were forced to move back to Kent from Qatar
The mother who drowned her ‘miracle’ IVF twins after her husband left her wanted to know he was ‘suffering’ while she was being held in a mental health hospital.
He had only allowed Ford, 38, to have the twins, despite her fragile mental state, because he believed a mother should see her children over the festive period.
Mr Ford said: ‘I don’t know how I live with it. How I feel changes every day.
‘Trying to come to terms with something like this – there’s not a book, there’s not any advice, there’s nothing that anyone can say or do that will make me feel any better.
‘It’s me that’s got to make this right, it’s me that’s got to deal with this, and me that’s got to get through it.’
Samantha Ford and Steven Ford with their children Chloe and Jake. The couple’s marriage crumbled after she became obsessed with losing her ‘perfect life’ in Qatar
When the twins were born after four attempts at IVF, Steven and his wife were living in Qatar, where he was club captain at Doha Golf Club and managing director of an infrastructure support company.
Against Ford’s wishes, they moved back to the UK in February last year and bought a house in Charing, near Ashford, also in Kent.
Their marriage crumbled Ford became obsessed with losing her ‘perfect life’ in Qatar, and in November she kicked her husband of ten years out, before demanding he return, just days later.
After he refused, she became fixated on trying to win him back, before sending him a chilling warning.
She wrote: ‘If this continues it’s going to lead down a horrible path.’
Ford even Googled how to drown someone in the weeks before she killed the twins.
The Crown Prosecution Service accepted her guilty pleas to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, instead of pursuing a double murder conviction.
Mr Ford says he will not rest until justice has been served for his ‘daddy’s boy’ Jake, and ‘little Coco Pop’ Chloe
Steven Ford outside court (left) ahead of his wife’s sentencing and the twins in an undated family photo (right)
The Old Bailey heard that Ford had not wanted to leave behind the couple’s lavish lifestyle in Qatar – and was ’emotionally controlling’.
She was jailed for ten years, but is currently in a psychiatric hospital until she is deemed fit enough to be moved to a prison.
Mr Ford, who is in the process of divorcing her, says he feels like she has got away with murder, and is now preparing to push for a change in the law.
He said: ‘Even when the hard facts point to premeditated murder, the laws surrounding diminished responsibility have prevented justice from being served.
‘It’s too broad, it’s too vague – this needs to change.’
Mr Ford says he still struggles to comprehend what his wife did to their children, and every day is haunted thinking about the moments before they died and what happened in the bathtub.
He added: ‘I’ve known her better than anyone on this planet has ever known her, but I didn’t see this coming.
Mr Ford is pictured with both his twins in an image posted to his Facebook account
‘She was a very practical mother, everything was regimented, there wasn’t much emotion – that’s what I brought.
‘I didn’t really understand what narcissism was until all of this happened.’
In hearings at the Old Bailey, Ford was accused of being controlling, a narcissist and fixated on making sure Steven is now suffering.
One psychiatrist claimed she was pretending to be more mentally unwell than she was, while Judge Andrew Edis QC told her: ‘You knew it would devastate your husband and I’m sure that’s one reason why you did it.’
Steven added: ‘When she ended our relationship and threw me out, it was relief – it was almost an escape.
‘However, it was a very difficult thing not to go back because of my children.
‘The hardest part was not being able to see my kids every day.
‘That ultimately led up to her killing my children and, as the judge said, there is no one else to blame for this but her, and there is no excuse for doing what she’s done, in my view murdering two innocent children to punish me.’
Mr Ford says he will not rest until justice has been served for his ‘daddy’s boy’ Jake, and ‘little Coco Pop’ Chloe.
He added: ‘Justice was not served, it is still not being served.
‘I can’t believe what I’m having to go through when I’m just trying to mourn my children.
‘She wants me to suffer. She has no remorse.
‘I don’t hate her because to hate someone you have to feel something towards them in the first place and I feel nothing towards her, absolutely nothing.’