An “emotionless” mother has been convicted of murdering her two young daughters after they “got in the way” of her sex life.
Louise Porton denied being involved in their deaths, though admitted parenting was “not one of the easiest things to do” at Birmingham Crown Court.
The 23-year-old’s daughter Lexi Draper, three, died in January 2018, while Scarlett Vaughan, 17-months, died 18 days later.
Jurors heard Porton accepted 41 friend requests on a dating app just a day after the first child Lexi died and was described by prosecutors as being “calm and emotionless” following Scarlett’s death.
Porton, who described herself as a “model” in texts to male suitors, blinked as the verdicts were read out and then sat in the court dock, one hand over her eyes, head bowed.
Between January 2-4, she used her Google account to search for “Why did my 3 year(-old) stop breathing”, and “Why do toddler having a fit stop them breathing”.
The 23-year-old suffocated Lexi in the early hours of January 15 last year and was then heard “laughing” at a funeral parlour two days before killing Scarlett just over two weeks later, on February 1.
Prosecutors said it had appeared to the funeral arranger present that Porton was “using FaceTime and that she was speaking to a man”.
Jurors were told that after police seized her phone, they uncovered searches including how long it took a dead body “to go cold up to the shoulder” and “five weird things that happen when you die”.
Opening the Crown’s case at the start of the trial, prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC said: “The overwhelming inference is that Lexi and Scarlett died because someone deliberately interfered with their breathing.
“That someone can only have been this defendant.”
Both children had symptoms consistent with deliberate airway obstruction and Scarlett had signs of recent bleeding in her neck tissue, suggestive of neck compression, jurors heard.
Saxby said specialist doctors could find no “natural reason” for why either child had died.
Almost two weeks before her death, Lexi had been taken to hospital on January 2 and then January 4, but was sent home with antibiotics for an apparent chest infection.
Prosecutors said that while in hospital with her sick daughter, Porton went to the toilets and took topless photos.
It was in the days after Lexi was discharged on January 4, the prosecution alleged the mother looked online for “can you actually die if you have a blocked nose and cover your mouth with tape”.
Porton also searched “how long after drowning can someone be resuscitated?” and accessed an article called “Toddler brought back to life after nearly drowning”, jurors heard.
The Crown alleged Lexi had been dead for some time before a 999 call was made from her home on January 15, with Mr Saxby pointing to evidence of Porton’s web searches.
Porton later told police it was “entirely false” to suggest Scarlett was already dead when she was recorded on CCTV carrying the little girl from a hotel in Rugby, where she had been staying.
But the paramedic responding to the subsequent non-emergency 111 call Porton made described the girl as being “freezing and completely lifeless” when he arrived.
CCTV also showed Porton filling up with petrol during the period when jurors heard the little girl had already been killed.
The first day of the trial was told that from August 2016 until early November 2017, Porton lived at an address in Willenhall, near Walsall, where her landlady spent “more and more time” caring for Lexi and Scarlett while their mother was “doing social things” instead of looking after them.
The landlady made a statement to police saying Porton was doing “whatever she could not to have them with her”.
Conceding that being a young mother of two young children would have placed a burden on the defendant, Mr Saxby added: “No doubt, she would have needed time to herself.
“But in the context of what was later to happen – in the context of two unexplained deaths consistent with deliberate airway obstruction – it is hard not to draw the conclusion that, for the defendant, at times, her two children got in the way of her doing what she wanted, when she wanted and with whom she wanted.”
Porton had denied wrongdoing throughout, telling police in a prepared statement: “My children were never an inconvenience to me and I accommodated my lifestyle and personal life around them.
“I still don’t know how my daughters died, or what caused it.”
Afterwards, in a statement released through police, the children’s father and family said: “Only having a short time with Lexi and never meeting Scarlett makes it all the more heart-breaking.
“We will miss out on all those special occasions they would have celebrated; their first day at school, birthdays, getting married and having children of their own.”
“The only comfort is that Lexi and Scarlett are together,” they added.
Detective Superintendent Pete Hill, of Warwickshire Police, said: “I will never be able to understand why Louise Porton murdered her children, Lexi and Scarlett.
“It is clear from the evidence that Porton tried to kill her daughter Lexi on at least two occasions prior to her death on 15 January 2018.
“Not content with killing one of her children, she did exactly the same to her other daughter, Scarlett, on 1 February 2018.
“She has lied repeatedly to friends, family and professionals to cover her tracks.
“At no point throughout the whole investigation has she ever shown any real signs of emotion.”
Porton, formerly of Skiddaw, Rugby, Warwickshire, will be sentenced by Mrs Justice Yip on Friday.