Charges dropped against mom charged with killing her two children
By TDN Staff Writer
January 23, 2012 1:25 p.m.
Baby Sophia and her sister Rachel. |
Director of Public Prosecutions in Dominica Gene Pestaina is defending his decision to discontinue a murder case against Sarah Lyn Augustine 22, who last year was charged with killing her two young children.
Pestaina told the local press that he made the decision based on compelling evidence from a court appointed psychiatrist who found that she suffered from post partum depression.
The same doctor also found that Sarah Lyn was competent to face trial. According to Pestaina, he weighed the potential of a trial that would most likely find Sarah Lyn guilty and sentence her to jail against the possibility of her receiving quality psychiatric treatment.
Pestaina noted that Dominica was unable to provide the kind of medical assistance that was required in that case. However, he observed that the Canadian authorities had offered to assist with medical treatment.
The offer of help from the Canadians weighed heavily in his decision. Sarah Lyn is also a Canadian citizen and has since left Dominica for medical treatment in that country.
On September 16, 2010 Police say that Sarah Lyn brutally stabbed her two children two month old Sophia and five year old Rachael to death in their homes in the coastal town of Mahaut.
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