Child killer had mental health issues as teenager

Sep 24 2008 by Lois York, Chester Chronicle

JOANNE Hill has a history of mental health issues dating back to her teens.

Her problems began in the early 1990s when, aged 17, she was said to be suffering from anxiety and repetitive thoughts.

She started dating Simon Hill in around 1999. The couple had met some years before as Joanne Hill was a friend of his sisters.

Hill bought a house in Phillip Street, Hoole in Chester and eventually Simon Hill moved in with her.

They moved to Well Lane in Newton in around 2002. It was while living here Hill began drinking more, a problem which became progressively worse until by November 2007 her husband said it was “unbearable”.

In 2000, Hill lost both of her grandmothers, one of whom she was particularly close to. This, combined with the strain of organising a 30th birthday party for Simon, resulted in her being diagnosed with anxiety and depression. That year she took two overdoses.

In early 2003 she was again suffering chronic anxiety. On June 15 that year Naomi Hill was born 10 weeks prematurely by caesarean section in a “difficult birth”.

Afterwards, Hill was diagnosed with puerperal depression-a severe form of post-natal depression. The couple wed on July 5. She Hill had a further relapse of depression on Boxing Day, 2006.

On November 26, 2007, she murdered her daughter, Naomi by drowning her in the bath.

Her defence argued she was suffering an “abnormality of the mind” when she did it.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist, witness for the defence, Dr Aideen O’Halloran argued that based on evidence from witnesses at the time and her own interview this year, Mrs Hill was showing signs she was “cutting off” from her emotions” and was suffering an Atypical Affective Disorder.

She told the court: “She was also using a mechanism of disassociation which was something she had a tendency to do. She was depressed. The combination of the two in my view results in abnormality of the mind.”

But consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Paul Chesterman, witness for the prosecution disagreed. When asked by prosecuting barrister Michael Chambers QC: “In your opinion at the time of the offence was she suffering from an Atypical Affective Disorder?”, he replied “no”.

He said it would have been obvious to people if she was unwell again, as had previously been the case. The depressive symptoms would also have been consistent for a two week period. Her chirpy behaviour on the day of the murder and ability to crack a joke with a pump attendant shortly afterwards were not consistent with someone who is depressed, he said.

He also told the court just because someone behaves in a bizarre fashion it is not necessarily an indication of mental illness, citing the Dr Shipman case as an example.

He told the court: “She was not suffering from any psychiatric disorder that could have amounted to abnormality of the mind.”

After being charged with her daughter’s murder, Mrs Hill was remanded in custody on November 28, 2007, and taken to Styal women’s prison.

But her condition began to deteriorate around a month later and in January this year, she was transferred to Ty Llewellyn medium secure mental hospital.

Staff there described her as “an enigma”. It was difficult to diagnose her with a precise condition. But she was said to have mood swings, being sometimes weepy, behaving inappropriately, staring at walls and being unresponsive to appearing perfectly normal.