Seven-year-old Louis Linse was described as “brilliant and lovely little boy” – but his life was cut short in tragic and terrible circumstances. The child was strangled to death with a leather handbag strap by his own mother while she suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Papaipit Linse then rang 999 to tell the authorities what she had done, saying he was out of control and “like a robot”.
Swansea Crown Court heard that there had been no concerns about Linse or the safety of her son until just a matter of days before the killing when the defendant started experiencing hallucinations and delusions and started talking about conspiracy theories, the rise of the “new world order”, and about global elites taking the blood of children in order to stay young. Linse has been made the subject of a hospital order without restriction on time and it will be for psychiatrists to determine when – or if – she is safe to be released back into the community.
The court that 43-year-old Linse was born and grew up in Thailand where she met her future husband Ed in 2014. The couple moved to the UK in 2017 and the defendant was given leave to remain in the county. Eventually the couple settled in Pembrokeshire. Louis was described as a “brilliant and lovely little boy” and was being home-schooled. The babysitter who helped Linse three days a week would later report a normal loving relationship in the family home on Upper Market Street on Haverfordwest with no concerns for the boy.
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By January 2024 the Linses were living apart with Ed being an in-patient at a mental health facility on Merseyside. However there were regular family trips to Liverpool to see the father and husband, and also regular phone contact. But then on January 6 there was a “major change” in the family.
The court heard Linse started talking about “various conspiracy theories”, about “the new world order”, and about elites who were taking the blood of children in order to try to keep themselves youthful. She told the babysitter not to have children as “they” would take them. She told her son Louis the grass in the playground was poisonous and she called the local leisure centre “evil”. After a trip to buy railway tickets for their next family trip to Merseyside Linse returned home and switched off all the electrical appliances in the house. On a trip to Whitesands beach on January 8 the defendant had a panic attack and after stopping at a garage started talking about the security cameras watching her. So concerned was the babysitter at the decline in Linse’s mental health that she rang social services and a safeguarding team on January 9 – the babysitter was told an eye would be kept on the family.
At 10.44am the next day the defendant rang 999 and told the call-handler that she had killed her son. When asked how, the defendant said she had strangled him. Linse told the operator she had felt “totally mental” that morning and “felt like a robot” with no control of herself. She said “all kinds of things came up in my mind” and said was “twisted”. It later emerged that Linse was on the phone to her husband at the same time, having also rung him to tell him what she had done. Read about a man who brutally beat fellow patient at a mental health hospital “to within an inch of his life” and left him unrecognisable to his own sister
Police officers arrived at the house while the defendant was still on the phone, and she let them inside. Officers searched the property and found Louis under a duvet and pillow on a bed. Around his neck was a ligature – a thin leather strap from a handbag – which was tied so tightly it left a red mark when the officers released it. The boy was not breathing but was still warn and the officers performed CPR until paramedics arrived and took over. The child was then rushed to Haverfordwest’s Withybush Hospital but despite he best efforts of medcis could not be saved. The cause of death was later determined to be ligature strangulation. Toxicology tests showed no trace of sedatives or other substances in the boy’s body, and prosecution barrister Caroline Rees KC said the ligature had been applied when the boy was still alive.
Following her arrest the defendant continued to make admissions about killing her son. During the course of a number police interviews Linse said she had found being a single parent “difficult” and said she had been feeling “weird” and “unsafe”. She told officers her house was haunted and that she saw the faces of ghosts at night which kept her awake. She also talked about “a large vacuum cleaner” which was sucking out her emotions and thoughts. During the interviews she said she could not remember strangling her son and could not remember calling 999. She later said a “robot” must have strangled Louis before saying she was “the robot that did it”. Read about a 15-year-old boy given a hospital order after trying to murder a girl after buying a cannabis vape from her
The court heard that Linse was subsequently examined by three psychiatrists – doctors instructed by both the defence and prosecution – who all concluded she was suffering with paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing. Giving evidence at the sentencing hearing Dr Owen Davies from the Caswell clinic in Bridgend said there was “overwhelming evidence” of psychiatric illness and Linse had met all the criteria for paranoid schizophrenia including in her persecutory and grandiose delusions, her control and passivity disorder – Linse believed she was being controlled by an “agency linked to a secretive organisation” – and her de-realisation where the defendant believed she was “in another world” and was not sure what was real and where she experienced her life “like a movie”. The psychiatrist told the court the defendant’s mental condition “caused and was intrinsically linked” to the killing. The court heard that given Linse’s knowledge of her husband’s mental illness and treatment a psychiatrist had been specifically asked to assess whether her symptoms had been “feigned or copied” but that possibility was ruled out.
Papaipit Linse had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibly when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. The court had previously heard that the plea was acceptable to the prosecution and no trial would be sought on the original count of murder. John Hipkin KC, for Linse, said: “On any view this is an absolutely tragic case. The defendant will have to live with the consequences of what she has done for the rest of her life whatever the decision of the court today.”
Judge Paul Thomas KC said all the medical evidence from three very experienced psychiatrists was “consistent and clear” – namely that Louis Linse was not killed because the defendant was a “wicked person” but because she was suffering from a mental illness. He said the evidence showed that the defendant had been a “good, loving, caring mother” to Louis before the incident and that position would have continued were it not for illness. For the latest court reports, sign up to our crime newsletter here
He said: “The three psychiatrists have all given their firm professional view that your mental health started to dramatically deteriorate in the lead up to what happened. Those who were in contact with you were extremely concerned at your decline, described by Dr Wyn – instructed by the prosecution – as being psychotic symptoms. All three psychiatrists accept that what happened was entirely attributable to the onset of your mental illness at that time. You were in the grip of a severe psychotic episode which, put shortly, is the reason why it happened.”
The judge said the psychiatrists had all concluded that a hospital order without limit of time under the Mental Health Act was the appropriate way to deal with the case, and he said after considering all the evidence he agreed. He said he had considered whether what is known as a “hybrid” order – where the defendant serves a prison sentence after receiving suitable psychiatric treatment in hospital – was suitable but had decided against it. The judge said such an order would mean decisions about Linse’s release being taken by the Parole Board and her monitoring in the community being managed by probation officers rather than such matters being dealt with by treating psychiatrists. Judge Thomas said in deciding againat a hybrid order his paramount concern was the risk Linse posed to the public in the future.
The defendant was made the subject of a s37 hospital order under the Mental Health Act with a s41 restriction order without limitation of time. Addressing the defendant in the dock, the judge said: “That means that your release, if it is ever deemed appropriate, will effectively be determined by the psychiatrist responsible for your treatment.”
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