Barrass and Machin decided children were ‘better off dead’Brothers Tristan, 13, and Blake Barrass, 14, were strangledBarrass told
police she planned to kill the younger two children and herself after the older four had diedCourt reveals Machin is Barrass’s half-brother and father of the six childrenCouncil announces serious case review A mother who admitted murdering two of her children as well as plotting to murder four more has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.
Sarah Barrass, 35, had pleaded guilty to murdering Tristan and Blake Barrass, aged 13 and 14 respectively, at an earlier hearing at Sheffield Crown Court.
Barrass also admitted conspiracy to murder six of her children, fathered with her half-brother Brandon Machin, including Tristan and Blake, and five counts of attempted murder.Machin, 39, also admitted the same charges and was also handed a minimum jail term of 35 years for his part in the conspiracy.
Upon sentencing, a reporting restriction was lifted to allow the public to know that Machin is the children’s father.
Mr Justice Goss said to Barrass: “You considered your love for them and fear of being parted from them entitled you to take their lives as well as your own.”
Kama Melly QC, prosecuting, told the court the defendants hatched a plan to kill the children because they feared they were going to be taken into care.
But the court heard that Barrass had threatened her children in the past.
Melly said: “Visitors to Miss Barrass’s house would hear her tell the boys: ‘I gave you life - I can take it away.’“Speaking to the boys in that way was described as an everyday thing.”
The court heard that the defendants gathered up tablets from around the house on the evening of May 23 and divided them between the four eldest children.
Melly said: “None of the children wanted to take the tablets but were forced to do so.
“The defendants expected the tablets to kill the children overnight.”
The court heard that Barrass sent messages and made social media posts overnight claiming that they were suffering from a sickness bug.
But when she realised the tablets had not had the effect she wanted, she began to search for information on the internet about alternative methods of murdering her children, including suffocating, strangulation and drowning.
Barrass called Machin and told him the plan had not worked and he needed to come to the house.
Melly said: “They decided the children were better off dead than in care and he said he would help Sarah Barrass to the best of his ability.”
The court heard that Barrass and Machin strangled Blake and Tristan then placed bin bags over their heads.The defendants then ran a bath and repeatedly tried to drown one of the younger children, the court heard.
The court heard that Barrass strangled Tristan with her dressing gown cord. Machin strangled Blake with his hands.
The court heard that Barrass told police she planned to kill the younger two children and herself after the older four had died.
She described how the children were “terrified” as she tried to make them take the tablets and the child she tried to drown was “hysterical” as she held his head under the water.
Following the murders, and the attempted murder of the younger child, Barrass took the surviving children into her bedroom and eventually called the police.
The court heard that Barrass requested help with her children from the local authority.
Melly said the mother-of-six sent a message to a friend, in which she said: “I’ve thought of every possible solution to this mess. Mass murder, putting them all in care, checking in to the local nut house.
“I love my kids too much to kill them, I can’t put them into care for the same reason.”
Bryan Cox QC, mitigating for Barrass, described her crimes as “evil and nothing but evil” but said she was “profoundly damaged by her childhood”.
He said: “She was, over many years, subject to sustained neglect and emotional, physical and sexual abuse.”
Barrass had protested her innocence when she appeared in court earlier this year.
Upon sentencing, Sheffield City Council issued a statement announcing it has opened a serious case review into the matter, the results of which are due in around six months.
When she was produced at the Crown Court for the first time in May, days after the murders, she shouted from the dock: “I didn’t kill my boys. Swear to God.“
The court heard that all of the surviving children are under the age of 13.
According to the charges, the conspiracy to murder the six children took place between May 14 and May 20 and the murders took place on May 24.The attempted murders of Tristan, Blake and two other children, who cannot be named, took place the day before, on May 23. The pair also attempted to murder one of these children again on May 24.
Both Barrass, of Gregg House Road, Sheffield, and Machin, of Burngreave Road, Sheffield, were remanded in custody.
Police were called to the semi-detached property on Gregg House Road on the morning of May 24 after paramedics, including an air ambulance, were called to the street. Officers said a “major incident” had occurred in the house.
Hundreds of mourners attended Tristan and Blake’s funeral last month.
The boys were taken into the chapel at Grenoside Crematorium, Sheffield, in one white coffin accompanied by an honour guard of 300 motorcycles and two Lamborghini cars.
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