A mother who stabbed her daughter 11 times in the chest as she slept was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and believed she was being targeted by “lasers and technology”, a court has heard.
Shay Kang was found dead in Robin Close, Rowley Regis, West Midlands, after police were called to her home at about 12.10pm on Monday March 4.
Her mother, Jaskirat Kaur, 33, had phoned 999 to tell West Midlands Police “my kid is dead”, before telling attending officers that she had “projections coming in and out” of their home, with “tech and lasers and stuff”.
“It was me (that killed her) because I didn’t want her getting took by it,” she said.
Kaur denied murdering her daughter but prosecution counsel Sally Howes KC said her guilty plea to manslaughter on the basis of diminshed responsibility was acceptable to the Crown.
She admitted she had wanted to kill her daughter for the past seven months, telling detectives during interview: “They can’t adopt her, they can’t take her. It’s not going to make sense, but to me it does.
“I was worried about Shay growing up. I knew that there needed to be an end date.
“I would kill her again. I wanted her to die, I don’t regret it.”
Concerns had been raised about Shay’s welfare after she failed to attend Brickhouse Primary School, where she was a Year 5 pupil, for nine months between December 2022 and September 2023 which led to the involvement of police and social services.
Kaur, also known as Jasmine Kang, called police on 11 January 2023 and asked if she could speak to officers on a secure line and requested they were discreet when they arrived at her home.
During the time between the call and police arriving at her home, Brickhouse Primary School also called police requesting a safe and well check on Shay as she had not attended.
When officers arrived at their home, the curtains were drawn and they noted Kaur appeared to be suffering from paranoia, although Shay was “contented and willing to chat”.
After a second call from her primary school on 19 January 2023, police attended again and Kaur said she was unwilling to speak to them without a lawyer but then told them she was not sending her daughter to school because a “male was going to take her from there”.
Officers suggested Kaur speak to her GP about her paranoia and said Shay appeared happy and in good health and did not think she was in immediate danger.
A third call to police was made by her school on 20 September 2023 and when police arrived at Kaur’s home, noted that Shay appeared nervous, was hard to understand and giving monosyllabic answers.
When police showed the pastoral team at the school their body-worn camera footage from the interaction the next day, Ms Howes said they were “shocked” at Shay’s regression since she stopped attending school.
Social workers then became involved as police considered her a “child in need” and an assessment was carried out on 27 September.
The social worker noted the house was in darkness and Shay did not speak, but looked “relatively healthy but pale” despite having an “unsteady gait” and her arm movements were “stilted and robotic”, while Kaur was said to be paranoid and anxious.
A child in need plan was put in place in November 2023 as social services felt Kaur was meeting her daughter’s basic needs and had started to engage with them again, but said she was “not particularly coherent and demonstrated examples of paranoia” while Shay’s speech had regressed to babbling.
After returning to school in January this year, Shay’s speech improved and she told teachers she had had no-one to speak to while she was at home, said her and her mother spent their time in separate rooms and “did nothing and went nowhere”.
The youngster told her teachers she would spend her time daydreaming or playing on her Nintendo DS and there was no physical affection between mother and daughter.
Two forensic psychiatrists determined that Kaur had been suffering paranoid schizophrenia when she carried out the fatal attack on her daughter.
Dr John Croft said Kaur was suffering from severe mental illness, had been experiencing delusions and felt she was being targeted by technology and that her daughter would be taken from her.
He said she believed she had killed her daughter to “protect her from suffering and harm”.
In a tribute released by her school after her death, Shay was described as a “bright, happy, fun-loving child who was well liked by all”.
Wearing a black jumper, Kaur sat with her hands clasped in front of her and surrounded by dock officers and nurses and looked straight ahead as Carla Newby, Brickhouse Primary School’s pastoral officer, read out an emotional tribute to Shay on behalf of her and her husband, the school’s head teacher Paul Newby.
Through tears, Mrs Newby said: “Shay was always a bright, happy, fun-loving child who was well-liked by all. Her smile could brighten up the dimmest of days.
“This is the most horrific and devastating situation we have ever had to manage.
“We spent time with Shay as she rested in the funeral home. We placed a pink blanket and a teddy bear in her coffin for her to snuggle.
“It was an honour for us both to have been chosen to arrange her funeral and give her a send-off she deserved. May Shay find some peace now.”
