The parents strangled two of their children, aged 13 and 14, in Shiregreen, Sheffield, in May. 35-year-old Barras reportedly told her children on numerous occasions: “I gave you life, I can take it away.” The couple planned on killing their children amid fears they would be taken into care.
The parents admitted murder and conspiracy to murder all six of their children. They were sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison.
Police said the two defendants had been in a secret sexual relationship for years. The children all lived with their mother and, as prosecutor Kama Melly explained, “the Sarah Barrass household was prior to the events in 2019 was, to the outside world, a household of a loving single mum with six children, heavily supported by her brother Brandon Machin.” Nobody knew of their sexual relationship. “The children believed and even told officers at the scene that their father was dead, having died in the second world war,” she added.
The court heard that the parents had given their four eldest children tablets to poison them. When this plan failed, Barrass searched for other ways of taking the lives of the children. They eventually strangled Tristan and Blake. They also attempted to drown one of the younger children.
The judge told Barrass: “You considered [that] your love for them and fear of being parted from them entitled you to take their lives as well as your own.”
Barrass’s lawyer admitted that the crimes were “nothing but evil” but added that she was “profoundly damaged by her childhood.” She reportedly grew up in a home where she suffered neglect, violence, and sexual abuse before being taken into care.
