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Two terror Morris triplets detained under Mental Health Act

Shirley Morris with triplets Natalie, Shane and Sarah one year old on September 29 1989
Shirley Morris with triplets Natalie, Shane and Sarah one year old on September 29 1989

Shirley Morris with triplets Natalie, Shane and Sarah one year old on September 29 1989

by Danny Boyle

dboyle@thekmgroup.co.uk

Two so-called terror triplets have been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after abducting a little girl and getting her drunk.

Natalie and Sarah Morris, 22, plied the nine-year-old with alcohol until she vomited and appeared to have a fit in Strood.

In a case with haunting echoes of the Jamie Bulger abduction, the sisters snatched the girl from a concerned witness before taking her on a bus to Bluewater.

Turned away by security guards, they fled across a busy dual carriageway with their dazed victim in tow before being arrested.

The girl was rescued and taken to hospital with cuts and scratches on her face, head and hands.

Now the Morris sisters, who wreaked havoc across the Medway towns with their brother Shane and were given Asbos at the age of just 13, have been sent to hospital for treatment.

The nine-year-old, who lived with her family in Strood, was known to the sisters, who had been warned to stay away from her by the girl's father.

But the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, met up with the twins on February 7, 2009, and went to Chatham's Pentagon Shopping Centre.

Natalie, who had been living in Enfield, and Sarah Morris, of Carnation Road, Strood, bought alcohol and gave some to the child.

The 'Terror Triplets' Shane, Sarah and Natalie Morris, with their mum Shirley at Medway magistrates Court in 2002
The 'Terror Triplets' Shane, Sarah and Natalie Morris, with their mum Shirley at Medway magistrates Court in 2002

Shane, Sarah and Natalie Morris, with their mum Shirley at Medway magistrates Court in 2002

Later in the afternoon, a concerned witness intervened when she spotted them with the girl outside her home in Darnley Road, Strood.

Karen Apps told police one of the sisters had the girl, who was stumbling, in a headlock before she fell over and appeared to have a fit.

Canterbury Crown Court heard Mrs Apps went outside and picked up the girl, insisting she was too unwell to leave.

As she tried to keep the youngster with her, a bus arrived and the sisters tried to grab the girl on board.

But Mrs Apps held on to the dazed child until she bit her arm.

Gary Pons, prosecuting, said: "She went willingly, she wanted to go on that bus.

"But she was only nine years old. She was not best placed to decide what was in her best interests."

When the trio arrived at Bluewater, security guards refused to let them into the shopping centre.

While Natalie and Sarah used toilets in the bus station lounge, the girl was spotted vomiting outside.

Although told to stay while the police were called, the trio ran off and tried to get another bus.

They fled across a busy dual carriageway followed by guards who detained them before they were arrested.

The girl was taken to hospital with cuts and scratches on her face, head, hand and lip.

The sisters had earlier been found unfit to plead and at a second hearing a jury had to decide whether or not they abducted the child.

Both were accused of child abduction and Natalie Morris faced a second similar charge after she took the same child to where she was living in Enfield last April.

The jury found they had committed the offences and the court made a Section 37 order under the Mental Health Act on Natalie.

Sarah Morris was given an absolute discharge as she was already under the same order.

This means both sisters will be treated in hospital instead of being sent to prison and will only be released when deemed well enough.

Their mother Shirley Morris is believed to live in Watling Street, Strood.

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