CHILLING details of how Wendy Manthe planned the cold-blooded murder of her two young daughters were read out in the East London High Court yesterday as she wept uncontrollably in the dock.

A hushed courtroom listened in horror as Manthe‘s confession, made last week, was read out by her lawyer. In it, she told how she sent her elder daughter Morgan, 9, to collect shells on the beach while she suffocated her seven-year-old daughter Willow in the car with her bare hands.

She later strangled Morgan with rope she had bought earlier in the day. She then began cutting her wrists with a razor blade, but stopped because “I could not cut any more”.

Before court proceedings started, Manthe walked straight into her father‘s arms as she arrived at court, crying profusely. “I‘m sorry, daddy,” she sobbed repeatedly.

Her grim father, Sam Manthe, who lived with Manthe and her children in a rented home in West Bank, eventually put his arm around her and used some of the tissues she was clutching to blow his nose.

After she pleaded guilty to the May 21 murders, Manthe was convicted by Judge Jeremy Pickering and the case was postponed to August 17 for sentencing.

Manthe‘s confession detailed her bizarre shopping spree before driving to Kaysers Beach, where she killed her younger daughter in her work bakkie while Morgan was collecting shells.

After fetching her girls from school and saying they were “bunking work for the day”, she bought six phenergan tablets – an anti-histamine that induces sleep – from one pharmacy and 30 more from another.

“From there we drove to a café in Quigney to buy some picnic things for the girls. I also bought two blades,” reads the confession.

When the children asked where she was taking them, Manthe told them they were going to a picnic at Kaysers Beach. Manthe sobbed audibly as her lawyer read out the following part of her statement: “It‘s nice and quiet there and they like to go there.

“On the way out Willow asked why I didn‘t bring her bottle because she was feeling tired. I said it didn‘t matter because I had brought her some vitamin tablets and if they took that they could play for a long time on the beach.”

After she had given her children the “vitamins”, the girls played on the beach before the tablets took effect and Willow told her mother she wanted to “doodoo”.

“I knew then I could not do anything to stop it. Willow lay down in the front seat of the bakkie and Morgan was collecting shells for me.

“When I saw that Willow was sleeping I put my hand over her face so that she could not breathe. I laid her down on my lap. I called Morgan. Said she must be quiet because Willow was sleeping and we must go look for a better beach.

“Morgan started complaining – said she had a terrible pain in her leg. Think it was because I gave her too many of those tablets. I stopped van. I cut my wrist.”

According to the confession, Morgan then picked up her mother‘s cellphone and called Wendy‘s friend Chantelle Luff, telling her she had a sore leg but that they “were having a lot of fun on the beach”. “The phone went dead. I knew I could not cut any more – could not leave Morgan behind – who was gonna look after her and the pills were making her drowsy as well.

“I drove to the gravel road – don‘t know where. Morgan was so scared. I stopped bakkie. There was a piece of rope on the back. I walked around to her side of the car. I put rope around her neck. I could not look at her. I pulled rope tight until she stopped struggling.”

Once she had murdered her elder child, Manthe‘s phone rang and Chantelle told her she was sending an ambulance. “I said why. She said it was in case one of us was hurt. I looked at my babies and I said to her it was too late.

“I had dropped one of blades and I could not find it. I cut and cut but I did not want to bleed.”

When her frantic friend phoned again, Manthe told her she would wait alongside the R72 for her. Police arrested her there.

The only reason Manthe gave for her actions was that there was a fraud case pending against her. “The longer I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I was going to jail.”

Manthe allegedly stole more than R51000 from her previous employer.

She will remain in custody at Fort Glamorgan prison until her sentencing.