A MERSEYSIDE mum who drowned her four-year-old daughter in the bath was today detained in hospital indefinitely.

Laura Fletcher killed her little daughter Chloe at their Wallasey home after becoming increasingly paranoid she was going to be taken from her.

The 23-year-old then wrapped her child in a towel and slept with her for the night, before trying to take her own life.

Liverpool Crown Court today heard Fletcher's mental health had been deteriorating undetected for at least three years.

Psychiatrists say she was suffering from "persecutory delusions" and experts have now diagnosed her with a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia.

Imposing an indefinite hospital order, the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe QC said: "From many points of view the full facts surrounding this care are as shocking and worrying as they are distressing.

"This is a tragic case for everybody associated with it."

Wearing a white shirt and blue jacket, dark-haired, pale Fletcher showed little emotion as the case was heard.

Her barrister Neil Flewitt QC said she was now "totally detached" from what she had done.

He said: "She is totally detached from her current situation.

"There will come a time when the full horror of what she has done will dawn on her and she will realise she has killed her own daughter and what that means in reality."

Andrew Menary QC, prosecuting, told the court social services had been aware of Fletcher after Chloe's father Dean Marr reported his concerns.

But he said: "No-one, it seems, assessed Chloe as at risk from the defendant."

He told the court Fletcher deliberately killed her daughter in the early hours of April 27, but the youngster lay at the home for more than a day.

Early on April 29 Fletcher left their Oakdale Avenue house and walked half a mile to a public phone box where she rang the police.