Louise Porton

Louise Porton (born 1996) is a British double murderer who came to public attention in 2019 when she was convicted of murdering her two children as they "got in the way" of her sex life. Between 2 January and 1 February 2018, she repeatedly attacked and then killed her two daughters, one aged three years and the other aged 17 months. Suspicions soon fell on her when she was noted to show little concern at the unexplained deaths of her two children only 18 days apart, and a police investigation found that she had made a number of incriminating Internet searches at the time attempting to find out how to successfully murder her children and cover up her crimes. At trial, she was convicted by unanimous jury decision and sentenced to a minimum of 32 years' imprisonment. She is imprisoned at HM Prison Foston Hall.

Background At the time of the murders, 22-year-old Porton and her children, 3-year-old Lexi and 17-month-old Scarlett, lived in Beechwood Court in Rugby, Warwickshire. Between August 2016 and November 2017, they lived at an address in Willenhall near Walsall, where the landlady spent "more and more time" caring for the children as Porton socialised instead of looking after them. The landlady later testified that Porton would do "whatever she could not to have them with her". The children's father did not have contact with them and had never met Scarlett. Porton would later admit she found that parenting was "not one of the easiest things to do".

Murders Lexi Draper In January 2018, Porton's daughter Lexi Draper was admitted to hospital several times for illnesses which doctors could not explain. Her symptoms were consistent with deliberate airway obstruction, but doctors at the time did not consider this suspicious and believed that her condition arose from a chest infection. the media noting her callousness in killing her children only because of her sex life. In December 2019, soon after she was convicted, there was controversy when it was reported that Porton would receive 'three Christmas meals' in prison. The death was not considered suspicious and was believed to be a suicide.

Porton's case has been referenced in a number of academic journals focused on female murderers and the media response to Porton's case. In May 2022, her case was discussed in The British Journal of Social Work, in an article titled ‘Social Workers Failed to Heed Warnings’: A Text-Based Study of How a Profession is Portrayed in UK Newspapers. Also in May 2022, Porton was the subject of an article in the Journal of Concurrent Disorders, titled Analysing the discursive psychology used within digital media to influence public opinions concerning female child-killers.