A DISTRESSED mother told her three children "I love you", before drowning them in the bath, kissing them and tucking them up together in bed.

Scots-raised Fiona Anderson, 23, who was eight months' pregnant, died on April 15 last year after jumping from a car park in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Police later found the bodies of Levina, three, Addy, two, and 11-month-old Kyden, in their mother's double bed at their home in the town, an inquest in Bury St Edmunds heard yesterday.

Miss Anderson, who grew up in Moray and attended Kingussie High School and Forres Academy before the family moved south in 2008, had feared her children would be taken into care.

She had scrawled messages on the walls of the house, including: "I've put them in bed, the last words they heard were I love you."

The inquest heard a Suffolk Local Safeguarding Children Board serious case review found the repeated refusal by Miss Anderson and the children's father, Craig McClelland, to co-operate with social workers had made it difficult to take any effective action.

The report's author said attempts to intervene had been allowed to "drift", a student social worker had "inappropriately" been assigned the case and the couple's relationship with social workers had become "adversarial".

There were concerns of possible neglect, though neither parent had been known to harm the children.

Officers who called at the house found evidence that the children had been drowned in the bath.

Another message on the wall read: "I love them and I'm going to keep them safe." A final message said: "They're cuddled up together sleeping. They look so peaceful."

The children each had a heart drawn on their torso to create the message "I love you x", Detective Chief Inspector Andy Smith said.

There was also evidence of a lipstick kiss mark on each of their foreheads.

Miss Anderson had written the children's names on her body, and the name Eve. She had intended to name her unborn daughter Everly Rihanna, the inquest heard.

Mr Smith said the day before the killings she had argued with Mr McClelland and stabbed him. However, he initially lied to police and said he had been stabbed in the street by a stranger.

Miss Anderson later sent him a text message reading: "Say goodnight to your children - it's the last time you will see them."

Mr McClelland did not receive this because he was in hospital.

Mr Smith said it was clear Fiona Anderson loved her children but she was "extremely emotionally disturbed on April 13, 14 and 15".

He said a torn-up letter found after her death gave "a harrowing insight into her life".

The family had been known to care agencies since Miss Anderson became pregnant in 2009, but serious case review author Ron Lock said they had been considered "hard to reach" .

He said: "If the children had been placed into care this could have avoided this tragic outcome. But there is never any guarantee the application for a care order would be successful or that the children would remain in care."

Because there was no previous evidence of harm, the deaths were not foreseeable, he concluded.

Bob Cook, chairman of the safeguarding panel, said: "It was so far off the radar I don't think it could have been predicted by any reasonable person."

The inquest continues today.