'Somebody failed': Friend says Bristol mother's illness was reported less than two weeks before she killed her three children

Yasmeen Ali, a 44-year-old former nurse, stabbed Fares, seven, Joury, three, and baby Mohammed at home in Sea Mills on 18 February 2024. On 6 February, her friend Gemma had contacted both social services and police, and there were calls for Ali to be sectioned. That never happened. Ali's psychotic state was reportedly put down to 'stress', and she had left a Bristol psychiatric hospital just six days before.

Ali admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was given an indefinite hospital order on Friday.

Judge Thomas Linden expressed his condolences over shortcomings in local mental health services.

Gemma insists the deaths 'could have been prevented'; a safeguarding review is due within weeks.