By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) – An American woman wanted in the United States for the murder of two of her children and attempting to kill her third child denied the charges in a London court on Wednesday as she fought extradition to the U.S.

Kimberlee Singler, 36, has been charged in Colorado with seven counts including the first-degree murder of her nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son in December 2023.

Prosecutors allege Singler killed two of her children by shooting them in the head and stabbing them in the neck in their home, amid a protracted custody battle with her ex-partner.

Singler is alleged to have also tried to kill her third child, a girl then aged 11.

“Ms Singler denies that she is responsible for the death of her two younger children (and) denies that she is responsible for the attempted murder of her surviving child,” her lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

She is challenging her extradition on the grounds that if convicted she faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole, which her lawyers argue is a breach of her human rights.

Joel Smith, a lawyer representing U.S. prosecutors, said Singler’s surviving child had told police: “The defendant said God was telling her to do it and that the child’s father would take them away.”

Singler “initially blamed an unknown male and cast suspicions on her former partner”, Smith said. “That can be proved to be false,” he added.

Fitzgerald, however, said Singler was “concerned that the statement made against her by her surviving child was not voluntary”.

Singler sat in the dock taking notes throughout the hearing, which will continue on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Gareth Jones)