Mum drowns her daughter, 3, after wrongly suspecting husband had affair

A 36-year-old British woman allegedly held her toddler daughter, Bethan, under the water while she was in the bath to get back at her husband, whom she suspected was having an affair.

Claire Colebourn cried as she told the court that she mistakenly believed her husband, Michael, was cheating on her with a colleague, The Sun reports.

The woman also believed her husband was spying on her through the computer while she was at home, told family that he was a “controlling bully” and that he had signed divorce papers saying he did not want Bethan, aged three, in his life.

Colebourn also emailed her husband’s work colleagues, alleging he had walked out on his family and was in a relationship with the company’s financial director, Kelly Futcher.

In the time leading up to the toddler’s death, Colebourn had spent time looking up details about her husband’s ex-girlfriend and researching suicide and if drowning was painless.

After drowning her daughter, she placed her soaking wet on a bed, where she was found the next day by her grandmother.

Emergency crews arrived at the scene and rushed the little girl to hospital but she could not be revived.

Colebourn administered a huge shot of insulin to herself and suffered a diabetic episode. Her story changed a few times, with the 36-year-old initially saying she didn’t remember what happened, then that she did not want Bethan to suffer and in her eyes, “she’d saved her.”

In her final police interview, she said: “I am responsible. Bethan drowned because I was there, I held her under the water.” However, in court she denied one count of murder.

The trial is continuing, with husband Michael expected to give evidence at a later date.