Louise Porton, 23, who murdered her two daughters because they ‘got in the way’ of her sex life has been jailed for life. She will spent a minimum of 32 years in prison for killing 17-month-old Scarlett Vaughan and Lexi Draper, three.
She was convicted of both murders following a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
During sentencing, judge Amanda Yip told Porton her actions were ‘evil’ and ‘calculated’.
She said: ‘These were blameless young children who were plainly vulnerable and ought to have been able to rely on their mother to protect and nurture them. Instead you took their young lives away.’
Judge Yip added that the pressures of life as a single mum could ‘not begin to explain’ what Porton did.
She continued: ‘One way or another you squeezed the life out of each of your daughters, only calling the emergency services when you knew they were dead.
‘I am sure at the time of the deaths, you intended to kill each of your daughters. Why you did so, only you will know.
‘Those who loved Lexi and Scarlett have been left bewildered as to how and why you could have done something so evil.’
In a victim impact statement read to court by the prosecution, the girls’ father, Chris Draper said: “Why did Louise do something so evil to our beautiful daughters?
“You are their mother, the person supposed to care for them, protect and love them. They were just an inconvenience to you; how could you do this?”
Mr Draper said no punishment would ever be enough as nothing will bring his daughters back.
“I sit and think, day and night, and I can’t understand why my two little girls were taken away because Louise wanted to sleep around.
“Maybe if social services had listened to me, my girls would still be alive today.”
Mr Draper, who was in court for sentencing, said: “I hate Louise.”
CCTV footage showed Porton casually leading Lexi into their home hours before she killed her on Jan 15 last year.
While Lexi was receiving treatment, Porton took topless photos in the hospital bathrooms and was arranging to perform sex acts for money with a man she had met through a website.
Before calling 999, she searched “can you actually die if you have a blocked nose and cover your mouth with tape” on the internet. She waited “some time” before contacting emergency services the court heard.
Jurors were told that the mother-of-two did not seem distressed by Lexi’s death and accepted 41 friend requests on the dating app Badoo a day later.
Porton killed her second daughter Scarlett less than three weeks later on Feb 1 and told a 111 call handler that her condition “did not seem urgent”.
She was convicted of two counts of murder on Thursday following a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Porton, described as “calm and emotionless”, denied all responsibility, telling police in a prepared statement: “I still don’t know how my daughters died, or what caused it.
