A grandmother found her “crunchy and lifeless” baby grandson lying on the bathroom floor after the boy’s mother kept him underwater in the bathtub, the court heard. Natalie Steele, 32, told her mother and stepfather, “You’d better go upstairs” after submerging her two-year-old son Reed while bathing at the family home in Bridgend.
Describing the case in Cardiff Court on Tuesday, prosecutor Michael Jones, QC, said it was “quite clear that the defendant was mentally ill a few months before Reed’s death.” Steele, who was sitting in the dock wearing a dark sweatshirt, confessed to reckless homicide on the basis of reduced liability, which was accepted by the Crown.
Mr Jones said that at Reed’s death he and his mother lived in a five-bedroom house in the Broadlands area of Bridget with grandmother Amanda Prescott, second grandfather Eric Prescott and uncle Callum Prescott. “Mrs. Steele was described by her stepfather, Mr. Prescott, as a ‘brilliant mother.’ He said: “She has always been inclined to Reed and has always been devoted to Reed. She counted with him and taught him colors. He was so intelligent because of all the things she did to him. They were always together and inseparable. We’ve never had to worry about Reed, so we’re in shock. From the first day she was given to him and he would not ask for anything.
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Reed Steele was found submerged in bath water and later died in hospital (Image: Leah Prescott)
The prosecutor told the court that last summer the defendant befriended a woman named Heidi Auckland and subsequently joined her church in Bridgend. “Ms Prescott said Natalie had started sleeping again and described her as Natalie before her relationship with Reed’s father,” Mr Jones said.
“She started going to church and meeting and communicating with people in the church. They had picnics and went to the beach. Ms. Prescott said Natalie was having a great time, as was Reed. Ms Prescott described a moment when the defendant saw lights when she was tired and mentioned demons. She was quoted as saying, “Demons are dark and real.” She added: “The rooms felt different,” but Ms. Prescott tried to reassure her.
The court heard Steele and her son, who joined a church camp near New Kay, which began on August 9 last year, but on August 11, Mrs. Auckland went to pick her up due to concerns about the defendant’s behavior. Mr Jones said Ms Auckland “said that the defendant was talking nonsense, lying and had a changed expression on her face and voice”. He told the court: “She was talking about scapegoats and there had to be a victim, she was the victim, but everyone else will be fine.
“Ms. Auckland believed that the defendant’s behavior was caused by a demon, so Ms. Auckland reassured her and said,” We are banishing you in the name of Jesus. ”
She said it didn’t work and they started praying with her. A decision was made to remove the defendant. They put Reed in the car seat and left at 3:00.
Mrs. Auckland left Steele and her son back in the family home, but at 7:41 p.m., Mrs. Auckland received a message from the defendant that said, “I did something terrible, I felt I had to protect Reed from my family.” Mr Jones told the court: “Miss Auckland tried to call her, but there was no answer. She was driving straight to the defendant’s house with a friend, and when they approached the mansion, they saw an ambulance and police cars and she was talking to a police officer. ”
Mr Jones said Steele’s family could see that the accused was “not herself” after returning from the trip, but they “just shrugged”. He added: “Mrs. Prescott spoke with Reed and he told her that he had a great time on the beach, played with diggers, had a birthday and had fun. He spoke in full sentences and looked really happy and ate a lot of Jelly Babies. ”
The court heard Steele talk to Reed and said, “Raidy-Roo, let’s eat toast and go take a bath. Mr Jones told the court: “Defendant took Reid upstairs and Ms. Prescott said it was not uncommon for the defendant and Reed to be in the bathtub for a long time and to have been there for an hour or more. Sometimes she would jump in the tub with him or sit next to him and play or sing together.
“Ms. Prescott and her husband were eating downstairs when the defendant went downstairs and said, ‘You’d better go upstairs, I think, I think I did …’ Mrs. Prescott described panicking because Reed was not with her. She said, “What did you do?” and the defendant said, “Reed, the bathroom.”
She ran upstairs and saw Reed lying in the middle of the bathroom floor with his eyes wide open. Mrs. Prescott began resuscitation and asked her husband to call 999. Reed was described as unstable and lifeless. Ms. Prescott and Mr. Prescott took turns applying CPR as the defendant stared blankly, running her hands through her hair, trembling as she walked up and down.
“Mrs. Prescott said Reed had food in his mouth, so he took it out. He was pulled aside and water flowed from his nose and mouth. At 19:41, a call was made to 999, and Callum told the operator that Reed was not breathing. CPR continued to Reid, with the ambulance operator counting them through chest compressions.
When police arrived, Steele was seen sitting on top of the stairs and described as “seemingly staring into space.” Mr Jones said: “They went into the bathroom and the paramedics were serving Reed, who was lying on the bathroom floor with his feet against the door. The staff left the bathroom to talk to family members. The defendant was sitting with her knees bent to her chest and her hands on her head. Mrs. Prescott was visibly upset and was crying and holding her head in her hands.
Flower Tribute near the home where Reed Steele was found in critical condition (Image: Richard Swingler)
Officers, the defendant and her mother went downstairs to talk to the ambulance officer. The defendant said she was in the bathroom playing with cups of tea, and said she was really worried about her family and had crawling eyes. She told police she had problems with ghosts that touched her.
Mrs. Prescott said to her daughter, “Did you do it?” And Steele said, “I had a feeling I had to protect him from you.” Mrs. Prescott was worried, but Steele showed little emotion.
Mrs. Prescott shouted, “You drowned him,” and Steele said she was in the bathtub with Reed, but she was so worried about him that she had to protect him. She said, “Then I kept it underwater,” and put her hands on top of each other to illustrate. She said she took Reed out of the tub, wrapped him in a towel, and held him.
Steele was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of Reed, who was taken by air ambulance to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. He was found to be suffering from symptoms of drowning and hypothermia. His condition is deteriorating and despite all the efforts of medical staff, he was pronounced dead at 3:35 pm on August 12.
In the custody apartment in Bridgend Steele, he said he did not want to live anymore and that he could not live without his son, and also said: “I had to take care of him forever.”
She added: “I felt that the family wanted to kill Reed, I felt that I had to protect him and I had the feeling that they would kill him. I don’t know how I did it. ” Another comment she made, the court heard, was, “He left for me, I did.”
She described her family as “demons in themselves” and their behavior and voices are “strange”. She said she was “scared and scared” and took Reid out to get out of them after returning from camping.
In his second police interview, Steele said he thought she might have defended Reed by “sending him to heaven for God’s protection.” She denied trying to baptize Reed when she kept him underwater.
Reid’s autopsy was performed at Cardiff University Hospital in Wales on 13 August. The court heard that due to prolonged resuscitation and the time between the incident and Reed’s death, any trace of drowning had been lost. The official cause of death was hypoxic ischemic brain injury due to cardiac arrest.
Steele was evaluated by forensic psychiatrist consultant Dr. Philip Huckle on November 3 and January 10. He said that at the time of Reed Steele’s death, she thought her family was “acting weird, with big eyes” and interpreted it as “demonic”. In his report, Dr. Huckle said: “I think this mother, described as devoted to Reed, was so psychotic at the time she was deluded that her family was demonic and would do some harm to Reed and put him under water to protect it.
He said Steele suffers from psychotic depression, which means that she cannot understand the nature of her behavior and is unable to form rational judgment or exercise self-control. Dr Huckle added: “I think she reduced the responsibility during Reed’s murder. That she is so mentally ill explains her actions. ”
Another counseling forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Tom Winn, came to a similar conclusion. He said he believed the accused “worked with a mental disorder for several months” before Reed’s death and said she had an unrecognized, undiagnosed and untreated serious mental illness and was so deluded that she drowned her son. to protect him from demons and send him to heaven, ”which suggests that her guilt is small.
Judge Michael Fitton QC made Steele subject to orders under the Mental Health Act, …
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