Mother, 37, who murdered her baby son months before she went on to kill her young daughter is jailed for life.

DM: A mother who was jailed for life after murdering her baby son just months before killing her three-year-old daughter has been forgiven by her husband who said he 'wishes her well'.

Lesley Dunford, 37, was sentenced to a minimum of 13 years behind bars at the Old Bailey in London this morning after admitting murdering son Harley, aged seven months, in August 2003.

The court heard 'something clicked' inside her when trying to get her son to stop crying, which led her to suffocate him.  

It was first recorded as cot death, but suspicions arose after Lucy, three, died at the family home in East Sussex in February 2004.

She was eventually jailed for the manslaughter of Lucy in 2012, with her husband Wayne at first standing by her until her guilty plea over Harley's murder, after which he branded her a 'good liar'.

The court heard she wrote a confession to Harley's murder while in prison, admitting she 'pushed his face into the mattress until he stopped breathing'.

The court was told that Dunford's husband Wayne, who is in the process of divorcing her, had forgiven her and 'wishes her well in the future'.

Speaking after the sentencing, Mr Dunford, 58, said his 'gullible' wife should be in a hospital and not a prison where she might be 'bullied and taken advantage of'.

Harley's death was not treated as suspicious until Dunford admitted the killing to prison staff in 2014 while serving seven years for the manslaughter of her daughter, the Old Bailey heard. 

Sentencing, Mr Justice Baker said: 'The reality is, had you not confessed to killing Harley whilst in custody, it is highly likely there would not have been a police investigation into his death and you would not have faced prosecution for murder.'

Prosecutor Philippa McAtasney QC said she was only charged after making a series of confessions to staff at Drake Hall women's prison in Staffordshire in June 2014, claiming she had been suffering post-natal depression.

Her husband Wayne, pictured with Harley after his birth, initially stood by his wife after she was convicted of the manslaughter but has since branded her a 'good liar' following her confession

Before then, Harley's death had been put down to staphylococcal pneumonia and no action was taken.

When Lucy died in 'very similar circumstances' in February 2004, the defendant turned to her local vicar and said: 'It's happened again, it's happened again.'

At the time of both killings, Mr Dunford, 58, had been out of the house at work, the court heard. 

It was while she was serving her manslaughter sentence that she admitted involvement in both deaths to prison staff, saying she was 'riddled with guilt'.

She told officers that she had been having 'flashbacks and nightmares' about what she had done.