Mum 'stabbed young daughters to death in fear of violent dad taking them'

A MUM stabbed her two children to death in a women's refuge because she thought their abusive dad would take them away, a court heard.

SAD: Samira Lupidi and her kids Jasmine Weaver (left) and Evelyn Lupidi (right)

Jurors heard how Samira Lupidi, 24, said "If I can't have them, he can't have them either" moments after butchering 17-month-old Jasmine Weaver and three-year-old Evelyn Lupidi.

Lupidi sobbed in the dock today as she went on trial accused of the double murder.

She was so upset she had to leave Bradford Crown Court as prosecutors described how the girls were found in their beds, each with nine stab wounds to the chest.

Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, told the jury how the Italian mother and her children ended up in the refuge on November 17 last year, after she called police to her home in Heckmondwike, West Yorks.

TRAGIC: Evelyn and Jasmine were both found with nine stab wounds at a women's refuge

Lupidi told cops the girls' father — her partner, Carl Weaver, 31 — had slapped her twice the night before and she was scared he was going to kill her.

Mr Moulson added: "As a result of these allegations Samira Lupidi and her two children were taken to a women's refuge in Bradford.

"During an induction at the refuge she told a support worker that Mr Weaver would want the children and would kill her and the children if he found her."

But the morning after she was admitted, staff at the refuge found Lupidi running out of the flat she had been allocated and shouting she had "killed the children".

Mr Moulson said the defendant told another member of staff: "It's his fault. Now he has a reason to kill me. If I can't have them, he can't have them either.

"He was coming to get me. I had to do this."

PLEA: Lupidi has admitted manslaughter but denies the murder counts

The prosecutor said a 14in kitchen knife with a 10in blade was found on one of the children's beds.

He added that after Lupidi was arrested, she said: "I know what I have done. My life is nothing now."

Lupidi admits killing the children and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

She denies two counts of murder.

The trial continues.