THIRTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD Sonia King on Tuesday confessed to killing her eight-year-old son Emmanuel King at their West Bank Demerara home in 2016.

King appeared before Justice Navindra Singh at the Demerara High Court and pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter. The woman was initially charged with murder , but opted to plead to the lesser count of manslaughter.

The woman is accused of killing her son Emmanuel on Sunday, February 21, 2016, at the family’s La Parfaite Harmonie, Onderneeming, West Bank Demerara home.

Justice Singh accepted her plea and ordered that a probation report be prepared on King. The confessed killer returns to court on July 16, 2019, for sentencing.

King was represented by attorney-at-law Mark Conway, while the state was represented by prosecutors Teriq Mohamed, Tuanna Hardy, and Sarah Martin appeared for the prosecution.

According to reports, the child lived with his mother and step-father, Robert at Parfaite Harmonie, Onderneeming, West Bank Demerara. It is alleged that King and Emmanuel were in bed at their home when the woman placed a bed sheet over the child’s face and suffocated him.
The woman had confessed to the police and said ” Ah just hold him down, meh son was kicking up with his foot. Ah hold down the sheet there until he stop moving and then I go and call Robert and tell he I kill Emmanuel.”

According to results from the post-mortem, Emmanuel died as a result of suffocation.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported that when King was arrested in 2017, she had told police that her son succumbed after falling from a tree earlier that day. But, she later gave a formal statement to investigators at Den Amstel Police Station, reportedly confessing to the suffocating the child.