Daughter kills mother on eve of family party

London: A woman yesterday admitted stabbing her mother to death during a frenzied attack.

Nicola Edgington, 26, struck on the eve of a Bonfire Night family reunion at her 60-year-old mother Marion's cottage in rural Forest Row, East Sussex.

Mrs Edgington, a regular churchgoer, had chillingly predicted her death at the hands of her "wayward" daughter who blamed her for having a child taken into care.

She was stabbed nine times in the face, neck, head, shoulder and back with a kitchen knife.

Edgington had lived in fear of her daughter and had cut her out of her will because she was so worried about her mental state.

Only days before she wrote to social services stating: "She is the most unstable I have ever known her to be and for the longest period too."

Nicola, a schizophrenic, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Lewes Crown Court and was ordered to be detained indefinitely in a mental hospital.

Prosecutor Philip Katz, QC, said Nicola had been living rough in London before deciding to return to the family home for the get-together.

"She sought to blame her mother for all her woes," he said.

- Evening Standard