An 18-month baby was found trapped in a kitchen for two days with the body of her teenage mother, who was brutally stabbed 60 times.
This was a writing exercise I did while taking my undergraduate degree in Journalism Studies at the University of Sheffield
On Sunday night in Ibbotsborough, Victoria Robbins was found curled up asleep covered in her mother’s blood after witnessing her murder in her own kitchen.
Her mother, Tracey Robbins, 19, was killed on Friday night with 60 stab wounds in her chest and face, and her throat slit.
Alexandra Ferguson, Tracey’s neighbour, 37, said: “I can’t help thinking about that poor baby – what she’s gone through, and what she might have seen.”
The baby, who was unharmed and survived eating biscuits and drinking water from the cat’s bowl, is currently living with her grandparents, Ken and Fiona Robbins.
The victim’s father and owner of Robbins Company, a glassware manufacture company, Ken Robbins, 50, was the one who found both the body and the child in 23 Naylor Road, where Tracey had been living for a year.
The murder weapon is thought to be a bread knife, which was missing in the kitchen.
Several neighbours reported that they had seen a man near Tracey’s house on Friday, between 9.30 and 10.30pm. They described him as a white man in his late 20s of medium-height. His head was shaved, he was wearing a black jacket and jeans and he was smoking.
It is known that Tracey had a boyfriend, but the police are still trying to track him down.
Julie Lyons, superintendent of Ibbotsborough police, said that the police department will not rest until they catch the person responsible for this senseless and despicable crime.
He added: “This is the worst scene I’ve ever seen in 26 years of policing. To someone do this to a single mother in the prime of her life is simply unthinkable.”
Ibbotsborough police are now appealing to people to contact 08002624521 if they have any information on this man’s description, since he may have something to add to this case.