A woman who was said to have killed her three children in order to get life insurance money has been sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole.

41-year-old Deborah Nicholls was last week convicted on three counts of first degree murder and 14 other felonies.

She was said to have set her home on fire leading to the death of Jay, 11, Sophia, 5, and Sierra Nicholls, 3, in 2003.

Prosecutors told the court that Nicholls and her husband, Timothy Nicholls, were meth users who thought they would get insurance money from the fire so as to get out of debt incurred from use of the drug.

For each child, they wrongly assumed, they would get a payout of $10,000 (about £6,837).

Will Bain, one of the prosecutors who spoke to The Associated Press said: “They were strung out on meth, so you could understand why they would think they had (insurance) riders on the children.”

He added that it was quite terrible that they killed the kids for $30,000 (about £20,514) only to find out they were not insured.