Mother found guilty of child’s murder
Tamara Butler with daughter Bethany
(CNS): A Grand Court judge has rejected the idea that Tamara Butler was hearing voices when she stabbed and killed her six-year-old daughter last year and found her guilty of murder. Despite evidence from two psychiatrists that Butler was psychotic and suffering from schizophrenia, Justice Alastair Malcolm said the defence had failed to satisfy him that she had such an “abnormality of the mind” that she was not responsible for the murder. As the verdict was read to the court, Butler smirked, shrugged, and appeared completely unaware of the severity of the decision.
There had never been any question that Bethany was killed by her mother, who, according to her husband, Lenford Butler, had been devoted to their daughter before the horrific events of 27 October 2014. The question was whether her mental condition was so impaired that her responsibility was diminished, making her guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.
Tamara Butler stabbed her daughter multiple times with various knives and a machete. She then wrapped the child’s body in a comforter and placed it in the passenger seat of the family car and drove to East End. She was found by police on the beach staring into space, having tried to drown herself. She later told psychiatrists that God had told her to shave her own head and that of her child and kill her daughter because she was a demon.
The court had also heard during the course of the trial of Butler’s erratic behaviour and serious mental health issues before the night of the killing. However, one psychiatrist, Dr Wade Myers from the United States, had suggested that Butler was not psychotic but suffering from a personality disorder and had killed her child as a jealous revenge attack on her husband.
Despite the evidence from a leading local psychiatrist, Dr Marc Lockhart, who is treating Butler, who diagnosed her with schizophrenia, as well as supporting evidence from Dr Frank Knight, a psychiatrist from Jamaica, and the findings of Dr Arline McGill from the Cayman Islands Hospital regarding Butler’s condition that night, Justice Malcolm appeared to accept the findings of the crown’s psychiatrist, Dr Myers, who was described as an academic rather than a practicing physician. Although Malcolm fell short of accepting Myers’ claims that Butler had killed her child in order to hurt her husband, he was not convinced by the two psychiatrists called by the defence.
The judge indicated that he did not believe that Butler was hearing voices because the first time she mentioned them was after she was charged with murder. He said he was persuaded by the findings of the American doctor, who had argued that the disorder diagnosed by Lockhart and others may wax and wane but it could not completely disappear and Butler is no longer taking regular medication. The judge did acknowledge that Butler had suffered another psychotic episode since she was remanded at HMP Fairbanks but that did not seem to persuade him that she was suffering from a schizophrenic disorder.
Trevor Burke QC confirmed after the judge’s verdict that while his client had been found sane enough to be guilty of murder, she was clearly suffering from a serious psychiatric condition and would continue to be treated as such during her incarceration and that she remained a patient of Dr Lockhart.
Butler, who is the first person to be convicted of murder since the implementation of the Conditional Release Law, will be given a tariff for her life term. Submissions regarding the length of that tariff have been adjourned until reports and other information can be gathered. Once Butler has been given a period for her life sentence, that tariff will indicate the first time she will go before the new parole board, now known as a Conditional Release Board, to consider her mental health and suitability for release, if ever.
The nature of the crime makes it clear that Butler’s mental health condition, whatever her level of criminal responsibility, is such that she is in need of serious care but Cayman still does not have a suitable facility. Now that she has been convicted, she will no longer be able to attend the Mental Health Unit if she becomes psychotic and Lockhart will be forced to treat her where she is.
Although Fairbanks prison has been condemned by UK prison inspectors and is utterly unsuited to dealing with inmates with serious mental health conditions, it is likely that Butler will remain there in solitary confinement until a new facility is built or she is released or she dies in prison.
MYA
It pains my heart to know what happened. Tamara has been my friend for many years. When you are going through stress , you need support. Depending on why you are stressed is another thing. Regardless of the situation she should have not taken her child’s life. If your wife is sick and seemed to have a bipolar condition because of the husband, they won’t address it, especially if its a marital problem and if they are Christians sometimes they don’t want the church to know. This could have handled better from a family and church prospective. There were too many signals that she needed help. From the things she said to her act of shaving her head. When society turn a blind eye to these conditions it is gravely. God has all the say in this. Man is sinful. Taking the life of her daughter was what she shouldn’t do, but this could be avoided. She was unfit to take care of her daughter and her husband should have dealt with that. Lesson learnt. Don’t take mental sickness for granted no matter how minute it may seem. Act now and prevent losses. My prayer for my friend and sister is that she will repent of her sins. God have to deal with that. Don’t know what He is going to do. Forgive her. Pray for and with her. I pray that in prison she surrender her life to God and win others to Christ. She. needs to be treated like how God treats us when we sin. Don’t deliberately leave her to die.Do what Jesus would do. Praying for the family..
This conviction is f@%king outrageous. Shame on you all!
Response from “A mother” to me in that manner speaks for itself. Seems to be that of experience with jealousy over marital affair and in her opinion is how one would react. It does not excuse the serious crime committed but I believe and support Dr. Lockhart findings and pray he will continue to treat her. We seem to want to be judge and jury
I think this trial and verdict draws attention to the stigma that continues to be associated with mental illness and the comments made here continue to prove why persons with mental illness don’t seek help.
I’ve known Tamara for over 20 years and I have always known her to be a meek and gentle person. She has never been a confrontational person and NEVER violent!
Many things failed in this case, society and its prejudices against the mentally ill failed as it lead to her trying to down play what she was going through.
Her husband failed to take the warning signs seriously being the only other adult in the household and having been married to her for several years. He said he saw changes but he did very little to help, especially on the night in question. He should have immediately taken her to a hospital when she shaved her head and never have left his daughter with her. But yet again his failure might have been as a result of not wanting people to say his wife crazy, or people in his business…. Afraid of the stigma that a small community would place on his family…
The justice system failed to help someone who genuinely needs help. The system yet again failed to recognize mental illness. It did not adequately take into consideration the changes in Tamara’s personality and the testimony of both experts and even her husband who himself spoke to how ‘out of character’ her acts were.
While many stand in judgment based on what they read in a news article, no one can understand until they deal with it themselves. As black and Caribbean people we are conditioned to suck it up when it comes to mental illnesses as its considered a sign of weakness. Our ancestors lived through worse without psychiatrists… “People in Africa dying of hunger and you talking about you depressed” Things like that are why people often keep these issues to themselves and this situation shows the horror that can happen if we continue to ignore mental illness in our societies.
I pray for Tamara that she finds healing. I pray for her beautiful daughter that she continues to rest in peace. I pray for Mr. Butler who will have to live the remnants of his family as I am sure he has guilt and thoughts of what could of or should of happened. I pray for Tamara’s parents as they continue to fight to get her the help she needs. Imagine her mother having lost a granddaughter and now a daughter. Having to visit her daughter in jail in another country, then leaving her there every time knowing that she is unwell and not getting help.
Justice was done in this sad case. The judge made the correct decision. The metal state of the mother was captured by the psychiatrist for the prosecution.
To all the people who are outraged at the judge for putting this evil woman where she needs to be…
If it had been your child she shaved the head of and stabbed 60+ times with multiple knives… Would you still be defending her so-called insanity???
First of all a “loving mother” when hearing recounts of how she killed her child she should have found herself guilty of murder! How could she even try to seek a lesser charge/sentence?! And if she was so “mental” she would have successfully killed herself after all that too like what truly schizophrenic people do after performing such crimes. She did not have the courage to kill herself afterwards although it was obviously her intention and she could not see it through… Would a truly mental person have such self control to decide to spare their own life after stabbing their child over 60 times???
Shame shame shame on this woman, she got the charge she deserved and she should have asked the judge to hand it down to her herself! Her mental suffering now is the haunting memory of her actions…
its so easy to cast blame, when its not you going through this. I do understand she needed to be punish but no seen mother would do that to her child she had to have a mental break. why? she is not dead ask God he was in control. Yes! she needed to be accountable but in a mental hospital so she can get help and Doctors could understand what took her to this level and have knowledge to help other mother’s that may be going through what she was dealing with. I think the child in her sight appeared to be the husband and she was killing him. Now she have to live with this guilt and will eat her inner being of whats left of her mind. How can a judge say she was not mad when the crime speaks for itself. No one in their right mind would do this type of crime. I wonder if she was a born Cayman national if they would have understand this case more deeply. No killing is justified but this is truly a mental case. xxxxxxxx
This verdict is an absolute disgrace and could only be Logical and Just in the mind of a man. This poor woman was so obviously suffering from severe mental illness XXXXXX. This verdict goes to prove that the taboo of mental illness is still so strong. Not even a highly educated judge has taken the time to understand the difference between Mental Illness and criminal behaviour. I am so very sorry for the Family of the Butlers – you all deserved better – your beautiful girl would likely still be with us if their was better education, support and acceptance of mental illness – I hope that you find the peace to accept that injustice as well as this one .
This woman is suffering from severe jealousy. I knew that from I read the first story. She knew her husband and her daughter had a loving relationship, she knew that her husband maybe was growing out of love with her, she knew that to hurt him to the core was to hurt the one thing/human that he loves, she knew that to get his attention was to destroy the love of his life, she also knows that she was an evil mother and not a sick mother. Why did she not killed herself and leave this man and his child? She is a witch and I all she is now doing is playing to be mad. Store her away for life. Death would be too easy and she must not escape the horror that she put that baby through before she succumbed to her death. Baby Britney, may you rest in peace.
Whatever she is suffering from is mild compared to what ails you.
“As the verdict was read to the court, Butler smirked, shrugged..”
*stares at computer screen*
12:50 pm — you are quoting signals of mental illness. She is out of touch with reality.
Or she wants to play that card for the appeal.
Throw away the key pls.
I feel terrible for the father who has to live with this for the rest of his life. But I feel he should have removed his daughter from that situation. I’m sure he could have let her stay with a friend that night if he was unable to take her to work with him.
Hindsight is 20/20, and we always would have done the thing perfectly after the fact when all available information is known.
I know this woman and her family and I can assure you they are devastated. Yes they are aware of the act as they have lost a niece, granddaughter, cousin but they know that Tamara needs help. It was brought out in Court during the trial that she had been hearing voices from the time her child was a baby and yet the Judge glossed over that and said she only said that when she was arrested. The problem is that when you are not trained you miss signs of mental health and you think the person is misbehaving or strange. We never label it as the illness that it is. I am so saddened that no one stands up for mental health patients and that we do not have a facility here. This is tragic all around. The death of an innocent child because everyone – all of us who know Tamara – missed or ignored the signs because of our own lack of understanding, and now the incarceration of a woman without the possibility of medical help for her condition. Despite all the evidence by her treating psychiatrist, this Judge decided that “to hell with mental illness and her treatment” let me pacify the people who are talking to me behind closed doors! Sad for Tamara. Sad for her child. Sad for her family and sad for others who are ill and are left to suffer. For those of you who think she does not need help – I pray you never experience any situation where you need mental health treatment for a member of your family and someone discards them like garbage. There is a thin line between sanity and insanity. It could happen to anyone of us with just the right triggers!
I agree with you completely. No one in their right mind could possibly do what this woman did to her own flesh and blood. There is no question whatsoever in my mind that she needs serious professional help.
Just because someone commits a crime that to most of us is unthinkable, doesn’t mean that the person is automatically mentally ill. There are literally thousands of mentally ill people in the world who harm themselves or attempt to and do not harm their children! Many also go through life without harming anyone. The majority of people who suffer from Schizophrenia are NOT violent, check the statistics for yourself. I agree that she was a vicious, jealous human being who did not deserve to have such a loving and beautiful child.
My condolences to this poor babies Dad who will have this horror in his heart forever , RIP little Angel
This is very very sad for all concerned, including the mother. My heart pains for how this poor child suffered.
I am, nevertheless, not convinced that the judge is right. This mother from reports was devoted to the child — she had to be severely disturbed to harm her child and in such a horrific way.
I think she is still not quite in touch with reality — as evidenced by her posture in court. She will need mental health treatment for the rest of her life.
Such a sad story.
Every muderer has a excuse
It is even more frightening how many sick commenters and readers here obviously need serious psychiatric help too.
Correct decision
What now? Northward?? Clearly this lady is suffering from severe mental illness and clearly there are no facilities to properly address her condition at Northward? Since murders who knowingly did their crime are getting sentencing concessions, what measures are being taken for mentally ill offenders?
She needs mental help and not prison time. But this christian country does not provide that.
Why dont you provide it and house her if you care so much about her.
Christians are supposed to do what Jesus did and cast demons out of other Christians, not send them to a mental facility, especially being the woman is a Christian. Problem is churches don’t believe that Christians can have demons, so what happens is that it is demons controlling churches and everything is so distorted in the teachings being handed down in the churches because they won’t cast demons out of the people. Jesus casted out demons out of people every day of his ministry. This woman clearly has demons and needs them cast out, and yes still be in prison for the crime, that doesn’t change, give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s like Jesus said, you abide by the Law of the Land in which you live. But at least she could be free of her demons and end up being a great and lovely Christian witness from her prison bars to teach others about demons and how by the Power of God by His Holy Spirit through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you can be free from those demons and not be tormented any longer and be free in your soul. Maybe the body is locked away in prison but the peace and freedom will be inside the soul. There are many people who live free not in prison who live in torment with no inner peace in their soul. Joy, peace and happiness come from inside the soul, not from the outside, that’s why there is millionaires who live in torment in their soul, money can’t buy this. It’s a soul thing.
You lost me at Jesus.
You have just confirmed that religion is a very dangerous thing.
Good
Wow, hard to imagine anyone who commits such a heinous crime cold be considered normal, but then again, I’m happy to hear she is going away for a long time. Stabbing a child multiple times with multiple knives and a machete, you can only imagine the pain this poor child was experiencing at the time. Sane or insane, she deserves to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Is the suggestion that this woman has been faking schizophrenia during the entire period of her treatment by Dr. Lockhart, well enough to fool him, the leading psychiatrist on the island? What if the voices she heard were the first ones? That wouldn’t have made them any less compelling especially given her religious background.
If I were her attorney I would be advising an appeal.
This is so sad. I cannot see a normal woman stabbing their child whom apparently she loved and took such good care of. I do believe that when one is upset over a situation they snap and is then capable of doing anything. While I don’t know this woman I feel so sad and do believe that those who knew her should have seen the warning signs and try to get some help for her. No normal person is going to shave their head and their daughters as well. I am so sorry that the poor little daughter was left in the house with her, After all she could not fight her mother off when she seemed to be in a state of madness. Anyhow I wont try to be the judge only God can do, but it has made the entire Public sad. Her church friends said that she would in earlier times have the little girl dressed like alittle doll.
Deport her to serve her time where she came from!
This is so terrible. I wish there could have been a different outcome. I am no medical professional but personally I don’t believe that she realized what she was doing. I wonder why the father did not act proactive and take his daughter out of such a dangerous environment, especially on that particular night. He being a high ranking police officers should have understood. I feel like he let both his wife and daughter down. So sad.
I agree there is no good reason why she should become a permanent burden on this community but it is also my firm opinion that this woman could not possibly willfully murder her child the way this happened. I wish the brainless sickos intent on condemning her to hell here would seek professional help themselves.
You got children? What if what your child? Then would you say we can condemn her to hell?
Your brain continues to malfunction.
I would never under any circumstances say it is right to condemn anyone to hell. That is God Almighty’s job, not mine. Apparently you suffer from the grossest of misconceptions that you are God, which warrants you yourself permanent residency in a safe asylum.