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Dad Steven Ford whose twins were killed by their mum asks for donations to Smile for Joel charity on babies' third birthday

A dad whose twins were killed by their mum has asked for help in doing "something of significance" to help other families on what would have been his babies' third birthday.

Steven Ford's estranged wife Samantha was sentenced to 10 years after admitting the manslaughter of 23-month-old Jake and Chloe on Boxing Day 2018.

Steven Ford with the twins. Picture: Facebook
Steven Ford with the twins. Picture: Facebook

The 38-year-old had drowned them in the bath of her Margate home after becoming mentally unwell following the break-up of her marriage. She then tried to take her own life by driving her car into a lorry on the Thanet Way in Thanet.

Today, in a sombre post on Facebook Mr Ford marked the twins' birthday by asking for donations to Smile for Joel, a charity which helps the loved ones of murder victims and who had offered him support after in earlier stages of his grief.

Mr Ford said: "Smile For Joel is a charity that reached out to the homicide victim support team that took care of me last year and offered their charity services to me with a lovely gesture.

"As a way of remembering my children and to mark their third birthday with something of significance, I kindly ask you all to make a small donation to the Smile For Joel charity.

"They're a wonderful charity that support the families of victims of terrorism and have done some wonderful work over the last few years."

Jake and Chloe Ford
Jake and Chloe Ford

In a heart rending post on twitter earlier today he said: "To exist in this life without you both here, is the burden I'll carry for the rest of my life.

"Three years ago today was the happiest day of my life. I will remember that day.

Happy birthday Chloe and Jake x x My beautiful twins."

This is the second birthday he has had to endure without them.

In December he spoke of his last memories of the children the Christmas before. It was the day before they were killed in what he described as a "twisted act of vengeance."

He told Kentonline he had only allowed Ford to have the twins, despite her fragile mental state, because he believed a mother should see her children over the festive period.

But he would never see them again.

Before Christmas he admitted: “I don’t know how I live with it.

“How I feel changes every day. Trying to come to terms with something like this - there’s not a book, there’s not any advice, there’s nothing that anyone can say or do that will make me feel any better.

“It’s me that’s got to make this right, it’s me that’s got to deal with this, and me that’s got to get through it.”

Samantha Ford with Jake and Chloe
Samantha Ford with Jake and Chloe

When the twins were born after four attempts at IVF, Steven and his wife were living in Qatar, where he was club captain at Doha Golf Club and managing director of an infrastructure support company.

Against the wishes of the former Dover Grammar School for Girls pupil, they moved back to the UK in February last year and bought a house in Charing, near Ashford.

Their marriage began to crumble as Ford became obsessed with losing her “perfect life” in Qatar, and in November she kicked her husband out, before days later demanding he returned.

After he refused, she became fixated on trying to win him back, chillingly warning him in one message: “If this continues it’s going to lead down a horrible path.”

Samantha and Steven Ford
Samantha and Steven Ford

Ford even Googled how to drown someone in the weeks before she killed the twins.

But she escaped a double murder conviction after the Crown Prosecution Service accepted her guilty pleas to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

She was jailed for 10 years, but is currently in a psychiatric hospital until she is deemed fit enough to be moved to a prison.

Steven, who is in the process of divorcing Ford after being married for 10 years, says he feels like she has got away with murder.

Chloe and Jake Ford
Chloe and Jake Ford

The 36-year-old is now preparing to push for a change in the law.

READ MORE: All the breaking news from across Kent

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