THE father of a Merseyside woman who drowned her four-year-old daughter in the bath said she needed professional help.

Laura Fletcher pleaded guilty on Friday to the manslaughter of little Chloe on the grounds of diminished responsibility at their Wallasey home.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the 22-year-old was “suffering from serious mental illness” when she killed the youngster.

When police arrived at the house in Oakdale Avenue, they found Chloe fully dressed and wearing a dressing gown, laid out on her mother’s bed with a soft toy at her side.

After the hearing, the defendant’s father, Andrew Fletcher, said: “I thought her guilty plea was correct.

“It is very sad and very upsetting. I just cannot explain how it happened.

“I was not in touch with Laura at the time and I had never met my granddaughter Chloe.

“I do not think a prison sentence would be right for her. She needs treatment.

“Laura did not know what she was doing. Now she cannot remember what happened.

“I now talk to her twice a week at the Scott Clinic and she seems a bit better.

“Sometimes she is up, other times she is down.

“We just need to try and get on with the rest of our lives now.”

Chloe’s body was found by police in the early hours of April 29, after Fletcher left the house to report the crime, walking to a public phone box half a mile away.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the little girl might have been killed some time before she was found and could have lain dead for up to four days.

A post mortem confirmed the cause of death as drowning.

Andrew Menary, QC, prosecuting, said: “At the relevant time, Laura Fletcher was suffering from a serious mental illness.

“A doctor is of the view that it was likely it was the mental illness which caused her to do what she did.

“In the circumstances, the Crown accepts the plea entered by the defendant.”