Mother Kills Her Sons To Prevent Them From Becoming ‘Women Abusers’
A traumatic childhood leads to a tragedy.
Brittany Pilkington, 29, was a mother of 4 who lived in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Growing up, Brittany lived in a problematic household.
Her father left the family when she was 9, and her mother met another man shortly after.
From the day he stepped foot into her home, Brittany’s stepfather Joseph Pilkington, 49, went on to abuse her both physically and mentally.
Even though she was in a romantic relationship with Joseph, her mother turned a blind eye whenever he became intimate with her daughter.
During that time, Joseph acted as Brittany's father when necessary and also supported her financially.
In 2009, when she was just 17, Brittany was impregnated by Joseph and later gave birth to their first son, Gavin.
In the years that followed, the couple ended up having 3 more children together. A daughter by the name Hailey and two more sons named Niall and Noah.
However, the family’s happiness was short-lived.
On July 22nd, 2014, Brittany suddenly snapped and proceeded to smother her 3-month-old son Niall to death, using his own blanket.
When Joseph found out that his son was dead, he immediately contacted the police.
Unable to identify Niall’s cause of death, the local authorities ruled it as ‘‘unexplained,’’ and no one was arrested at the time.
Less than a year later, in April of 2015, Brittany went on to murder the 4-year-old Gavin in the same way as before.
This time, though, the police suspected foul play in Gavin’s death and decided to launch a neglect investigation.
Additionally, the 2 remaining children of the Pilkington family, Noah, and Hailey, were placed under the temporary custody of the Logan County Children’s Services.
Yet, on August 11th, the couple regained custody of their kids due to the lack of sufficient evidence surrounding Niall’s and Gavin’s deaths.
The court’s decision, however, later proved to be fateful as Brittany wasn’t finished with her murdering spree.
On August 18th, 2015, Brittany claimed the life of her last son, Noah, by suffocating him. He, too, was just 3-months-old.
When the police arrived on the scene, they arrested both Brittany and her husband, Joseph.
Brittany confessed to the murders soon afterward.
According to statements given by her to investigators, she envied the attention her 3 sons were receiving from her husband and believed that she and her daughter were being overlooked.
Apart from that, in another one of her interviews with police, Brittany said that she was depressed and worried that her sons would grow up to become ‘‘abusive towards women.’’
Allegedly, every time she ended the life of one of her children, she waited for Joseph to return home from work and discover the bodies himself.
She never told him anything related to the murders because she was ‘‘scared.’’
During her court hearing, which took place in late 2015, Brittany pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.
One of her attorneys, Tina McFall, read the following statement on behalf of Brittany:
‘‘I love and miss all of my children and grieve for them every day.’’
Her attorneys claimed that she had brain damage because she had suffered from lead poisoning and continuous physical and sexual abuse in her early years.
Even though this allegation was never confirmed, an X-Ray scan identified brain damage.
This led the prosecutors to rule out the death penalty due to Brittany’s ‘‘mental defects.’’
Kort Gatterdam, another one of her attorneys, stated:
“Sadly, she’s safer living a better life in jail than on the outside.”
Surprisingly enough, Joseph Pilkington was only charged with a misdemeanor charge of sexual imposition after it was discovered that he had sexual intercourse with Brittany while she was still a minor.
Brittany Renee Pilkington was set to stand on trial sometime in 2020, but on November 19th, 2019, she pleaded guilty to the murders.
She was sentenced to 37 years behind bars.
Sources: Nine, Nzherald, ReviewJournal, HuffPost, Oxygen, MailOnline, Examiner