UK - Mother self-immolates in train toilet 14 years after stabbing son, 5, to death

A grieving mother burned to death after setting fire to herself in a train toilet - on the 14th anniversary of the day she killed her son.

Rachel James had spent 10 years in a mental hospital after stabbing her 5-year-old son Perry to death.

She had been released to live alone in the community and was travelling on a train from Northampton to London when she went into a cubicle and set herself alight after pouring petrol over herself, an inquest heard today.
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When aged 29 Ms James had been charged with the murder of Perry and attempted murder of his 9 year old brother Aaron in an attack on April 11 1997.

She appeared at Watford magistrates court and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The single mother - who was then called Helen Philips - stabbed Perry to death and stabbed Aaron and battered him with a hammer after snapping under the pressure of debts at their flat in Northend, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

The first her neighbours knew of the tragedy was when she appeared in the window of her flat with Perry’s lifeless body in her arms.
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The impression [acquaintances] had of Ms James was that she feared that she was going to have to go back to hospital.
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