Off The Record
Mother Finds Her Husband Was Sexually Abusing The Kids, Does This And Goes To Prison
A mother is the ultimate protector of the kids. There have been countless real life situations where the mother literally sacrificed her life for her children. One such example is Corinna Smith.
Corinna Smith found out that her husband Michael Baines had been sexually abusing her daughter and son when they were children. The mother stepped in and took the situation in her own hands. She poured boiling water with sugar over her sleeping husband, Michael Baines, 80. “Livid” and “fuming” Smith knew exactly what to do and boiled up two kettles of water and mixed it with three bags of sugar in a garden bucket. Then, she went straight to the bedroom where Michael was sleeping and poured the scorching sugar over him.
Punishing Her Husband for Allegedly Abusing Her Children
The prosecutors said that the sugar “made the liquid more viscous, thicker and stickier, so that it stays on the skin and causes greater damage and that is exactly what it did”. Baines, the husband which was 80 at that time suffered 36% burns on his body and was admitted into the Whiston Hospital Burns Units critical care unit and then into the high dependency unit. He underwent surgeries and skin grafts, but to no avail. He passed away five weeks after the incident on August 18, 2021.
The same year on July 14, Smith’s daughter told her that Baines was sexually abusing her and her brother for many years when they were children and finally it all made sense to Corinna. When Craig was young he was troubled young boy and even went to prison for an assault. He then took his own life in 2007 at the age of 25, but before his death he admitted to his mother that the person he assaulted was pedophile who touched him se*ually. It all made sense to the mother Corinna when her daughter told her about the abuse. [1]
Jugge Amanda Yip in the courthouse stated to her “You found it difficult to take everything in, but made the connection between what Craig had said the day before he died and what your daughter was telling you. You were understandably very upset. You were described as being livid and fuming at the thought of what had been done to your children.”
Later on, Judge Yip said: “Killing Mr. Baines also took away any opportunity for the allegations to be tested. That took away his right to a fair trial, bearing in mind that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I have no doubt that this has caused untold pain to Mr. Baines’ children. The allegations are left hanging but unproven…” [2]
The reason for her action are somewhat “understandable” for a mother, the prosecutors made their case despite that. After all she did kill her husband.
“We cannot and do not say whether these allegations made about Michael Baines are true or not, but that is not the issue for you in this case because the prosecution certainly accept that these allegations were made, and that Corinna Baines believed them to be true at the time that she caused the fatal injuries to Michael.“
Smith was hoping for manslaughter due to the fact that her anger caused her to lose control over herself, but this argument didn’t hold water in court considering the planning she did, including adding the sugar and boiling water for 13 minutes to fill the bucket.
Mark Rhind, QC, said: “The prosecution case is that her actions were deliberate and considered, that whilst she would obviously have been very upset and distressed about what she had heard, the evidence will demonstrate that she was in control and acted in anger and to extract vengeance for what she believed that Michael had done. We say that she intended either to kill Michael or to cause him really serious harm and so she is guilty of murder.”
When Smith poured the boiling water over her husband, she left the house and went straight to her neighbor where she said “I’ve hurt him really bad, I think I’ve killed him”. The neighbor then called the police and ambulance where they found Barnes in agony, his skin and arms peeled off yelling “I’m badly burned. I’m burned all over. She poured boiling water all over me. I just want to die.”
Guilty for Murder
The court agreed that Smith didn’t intentionally tried to kill Baines. She said “I accept that I poured boiling water over Michael with sugar in it. The whole thing is a bit of a blur. Minutes became seconds. I just lost it and was so emotional, I was not acting out of revenge.”
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes on the other hand said, “Smith killed her husband Michael in such a painful and cruel way. To throw boiling water over someone when they are asleep is absolutely horrific. To also mix three bags of sugar with the water showed the determination she had to cause serious harm.
Do you think she should go to jail if the allegations were true, or she got what she deserved?
