THE brother-in-law of a schizophrenic woman who killed her two-year-old daughter by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire yesterday begged a judge not to send her to prison, but to allow her to get “the help she needs”. John Carey pleaded with Justice Bernard Turner to exercise “mercy” in sentencing Philippa Marshall, claiming that the woman’s mental health warrants “rehabilitation and treatment” instead of “strictly retribution and punishment”. Mr Carey, who is married to Marshall’s sister, said the woman “did not choose” to kill Philicia Marshall, and is “just as much a victim as her daughter” in the circumstances. And by extension, he said, his entire family have suffered, as not only have they lost Philicia, they stand the risk of losing Marshall to jail. “We know that there’s a process involved, and justice has to follow its course, but I am asking for the mercy of the court that Philippa is allowed to get the help she needs,” Mr Carey said. “I don’t feel that she could get that in Fox Hill Prison.”

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