A MOTHER who jumped in front of a train while clutching her three-year-old daughter was likely to have been “legally insane” at the time, a coroner has concluded.

Leighane Melsadie Redmond and her daughter Melsadie Adella-Rae Parris both died of multiple injuries on February 18, 2019.

The inquest had heard how Ms Redmond, 27, had been behind on rent and bills, which seemed to be “one of the stresses” she was under before the deaths at Taplow train station, Bucks.

Assistant Coroner Ian Wade KC, concluding an inquest into Ms Redmond’s death, said: “Leighane had been suffering from a deterioration in her mental health, mainly mild to moderate depression but also expressed in acute episodes of psychosis.

“Health care services were available which were offered to her but she did not seek them. She was able to conceal these crises such that her illness was not appreciated.”

The coroner said Melsadie had been “well cared for and loved” by her mother and “equally well cared for and loved by all her relatives”, including her father, sales representative Leroy Parris and her grandmother Yvette Redmond.

By December 23 2018, Redmond had exhibited symptoms of acute mental illness, such that social workers took urgent steps to remove Melsadie from her care.

Mr Wade said that on December 29 2018, Redmond had been “appropriately assessed” by healthcare professionals and deemed not to be psychotic and to have depression. 

She was discharged from the mental health team “on reasonable grounds” and Melsadie was restored to her care, the coroner said.

Mr Wade agreed that social workers had missed an opportunity to discover “the full extent” of Redmond’s mental deterioration.

He added: “An opportunity to inspect the carer’s home, and to seek evidence from the carer’s family of other signs of the carer’s developing mental illness, and to liaise with mental health services, was missed.

“It cannot be concluded that such an opportunity if taken would have made any difference to the outcome. The carer continued to demonstrate capacity and normal function and also provided good care to Melsadie.”

On the day of their deaths, Mr Wade said that Ms Redmond had spent the day looking after Melsadie “with evident good intention”, but in the evening she had made her way from their home on Institute Road in Taplow to the station, holding hands with Melsadie and at times carrying her. 

She then enters the train station and climbs over barrier which non-stop trains passed, Mr Wade concluded.

In the case of Ms Redmond, Mr Wade concluded that she had died of “suicide”, but he delivered a narrative conclusion to Melsadie’s inquest.

He concluded it was not possible to say that Ms Redmond “was not suffering from such a disease of the mind as to be capable of action but incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong and was therefore likely to be legally insane”.