A mother has been found guilty of murdering her two young sons at their home in Dagenham, east London.
The bodies of Elijah Thomas, two, and Marley Thomas, five, were found by their father in December 2022.
Kara Alexander, 47, who denied two counts of murder, was found guilty at Kingston Crown Court on Friday, a court official said.
Post-mortems found the boys had either drowned or suffocated, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Alexander had claimed the children had drowned in the bath while she was asleep.
Prosecutors said they built their case on showing they could not have accidentally drowned and that the only reasonable explanation for their deaths was that Alexander caused them to drown.
The boys’ father was due to have them that weekend and became increasingly concerned when he had not heard back from Alexander, the court heard.
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When he arrived at their home, she told him the children were upstairs sleeping.
He found the boys’ bodies together in the lower bunk of their shared bunk bed dressed in pyjamas, the CPS said.
The ambulance service and police came to the house but there was nothing that could be done as the boys had been dead for some hours, the court heard.
Samantha Yelland, a senior Crown prosecutor in the CPS London Homicide Unit, said: “Our thoughts remain with Elijah and Marley’s family and friends who have been completely devastated by their loss.
“It is unimaginable to think what those poor children went through in their final moments.
“It is a parent’s job to keep their children safe and Kara Alexander not only failed to do that, but robbed them of their lives.
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“I hope today’s verdict will provide the family with some closure knowing now that Alexander has been held accountable for their murders.”
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Waller, who led the investigation, said: “Our thoughts are with the family, especially the boys’ father who found them dead when he went to collect them for the weekend after Kara Alexander had failed to return his messages.
“No parent should have to go through such a horrific experience, and then have to listen to the detailed evidence highlighting what led up to these events.”
DCI Waller also praised the officers and paramedics who were first on the scene as they “also experienced this traumatic event first hand”.
The guilty verdict “cannot turn back the clock but it does provide the children’s family with some form of resolution,” he said.
Alexander will be sentenced in April.
