Father makes chilling discovery after ex-partner drowns their two young sons in a brutal act of murder.

A mother who smoked cannabis drowned her two young sons in the bathtub before their father arrived to collect them, a court has heard. Kara Alexander, 47, was found guilty of murdering Marley Thomas, five, and Elijah Thomas, two, in their home in Dagenham, east London, in December 2022.

A jury at Kingston Crown Court convicted Alexander on Friday after nearly seven hours of deliberation. Post-mortem examinations determined the boys had either drowned or suffocated, with prosecutors arguing that their deaths were not accidental but the result of a deliberate act.

The children’s father, Selvin Thomas, had grown concerned when Alexander failed to respond to his messages. When he arrived at her home on Cornwallis Road, she insisted the boys were sleeping upstairs. What he found instead was a nightmare.

Inside the bedroom, he discovered their toys piled up against the door, creating a barricade. Rushing inside, he found Marley and Elijah lying lifeless in the lower bunk bed, dressed in their pyjamas and tucked under a duvet. Only their faces were visible.

“They were bunched up together and it looked like they were asleep,” prosecutor Philip Evans KC told the court. “He touched Marley’s face—it was freezing cold and hard. He knew immediately they were dead.”

Thomas ran downstairs in shock, screaming: “Kara, Kara, Kara. What the f–k? You’ve killed my children!” But by then, Alexander had fled through the gardens and disappeared into a neighbouring street. Police arrested her an hour later.

During her arrest, Alexander claimed she had left her sons in the bath while she smoked cannabis. The court heard that she regularly purchased the drug from at least two suppliers and that post-mortems revealed traces of cannabis in both children’s blood.

The prosecution argued that the boys may have been exposed to the drug in an enclosed space where their mother was smoking in the hours before their deaths. While Alexander insisted their deaths were an accident, the jury ruled otherwise, finding her guilty on two counts of murder.

Marley and Elijah, also known as Teddy, had previously lived with both parents in Hackney before Alexander moved with them to Dagenham following her split from Thomas.

“This has been a particularly tragic and sad case,” said Mr Justice Bennathan, adding that the trial had taken an emotional toll on everyone involved. A provisional sentencing date has been set for April 11.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Waller, who led the investigation, said: “This guilty verdict cannot turn back the clock, but it does provide the children’s family with some form of resolution.”

During the trial, Alexander’s defence, led by Jeremy Dein KC, attempted to argue diminished responsibility on the grounds that she had an acute and transient psychotic disorder. However, the jury rejected this claim, agreeing with the prosecution’s assertion that she had intentionally drowned her children.

Now facing a life sentence, Alexander’s fate will be decided in court in April, but no ruling can undo the horror of what happened to Marley and Elijah that night.