A jury found that the mother inflicted the wounds that killed her two young children.

The jury found the mother had inflicted injuries that led to the deaths of her daughter and son, aged seven and 11, and had also unlawfully stabbed the father in the stomach.

Veronique John was not present at Nottingham Crown Court when a jury at a fact-finding hearing found she was liable for unlawfully causing injury in the attacks, which the prosecution described as “almost too horrific to even contemplate”.

Her daughter Elizabeth died at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on June 11 last year with a fractured skull and stab wounds, while her 50-year-old son suffered more than 20 stab wounds.

John, who has been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as personality disorders and depression, was found to be unfit to give evidence and to be unfit to stand trial.

She is being treated at Rampton High Security Hospital in Nottinghamshire and faces an indefinite hospital order following a jury verdict.

The fact finding hearing did not require jurors to reach a verdict of guilt or innocence on the charges of murder and attempted murder. Instead, the jury was asked to decide whether John had “committed the acts charged.”

After five days of hearing evidence, the jury at Nottingham Crown Court took about 40 minutes to reach a unanimous decision.

The court heard that John, from the Caribbean island of St Vincent, “descended” on violence at her home in Flax Street, Stoke, because she did not want her husband, Nathan John, to have their children.

She then went to the car wash where the man was working to stab him in the stomach.

When he got home John called 999 and told the operator: “I’m calling to report that I’ve just killed my two children.”

The charity shop worker told police after her arrest: “If you have a gun, shoot me. I’m not a monster – he was going to take it from me.”

John, who was said to be seething with anger after being arrested for assaulting her husband on suspicion of having an affair, later told an interviewer: “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time – just killing myself and the kids. Unless you offer me the death penalty, I’ve got nothing more to say.”

“I did it because I love my children – to protect my children. If there was any way I could be put to death, I would want it. When I say that, I’m not kidding. I mean that 100 percent.”

She claimed to have no recollection of the nature or number of injuries inflicted on the children.

Ethan was pronounced dead after being found in a bedroom, while Elizabeth was found in the living room, with head trauma and injuries in “three places,” including her abdomen.

The court heard that attempts to save the children, who had neck wounds, proved “futile” due to the severity of their injuries.

The judge ruled that John, who did not raise an insanity defence, was not competent to enter a guilty plea because psychiatrists told her she was in a “very poor mental state” and would be unable to participate in the proceedings.

Mr Justice Choudhury will on Monday hear the case of John, who came to the UK nine years ago and has no previous convictions.