A mother searched the internet for phrases including 'how do mums kill their children' and 'whats it like to stab someone' days before she killed her two young children in their family home, court documents have revealed.
Details of the Incident
The New South Wales woman stabbed her children to death in their bedrooms one night years ago, before attempting to take her own life. Her husband made the horrific discovery after being notified that the children were absent from school. Upon finding her wounded in the house, he asked: 'What have you done? ... Where are the kids?' According to agreed facts, she replied: 'I killed them.' The family cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Court Hearing on Mental Impairment
The mother appeared in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether she should be found not criminally responsible for the deaths due to mental impairment. Both the woman's lawyer and the prosecutor endorsed this course of action, but Justice Richard Cavanagh questioned the strength of the evidence regarding her mental health impairment.
Judicial Concerns
Justice Cavanagh highlighted the mother's internet search history, suicide notes, and seemingly contradictory psychological reports as casting doubt on the extent of her impairment. 'This is not a case involving schizophrenia, for example, there's no suggestion of deluded beliefs, there's no suggestion of psychotic episodes ... that so affected the defendant's thought processes that she wasn't able to reason,' he said. 'It needs to be more than a mental health impairment.'
The suicide note found by police the day after the killings stated she could not 'leave my boys alone in such a bad world without my support' and added 'I hope you can forgive me.' Justice Cavanagh did not dispute that the mother had major depression but questioned whether it met the threshold for impairment. 'There's obviously a difference between her belief about her own attempted suicide and whether she believed what she was planning to do ... was wrong,' he said.
Internet Searches and Planning
The judge also noted the woman's internet searches prior to the alleged murder, which appeared to show she was 'clearly planning the event.' These searches included terms such as 'bodies main arteries', 'suicide parents and kids', scientific articles, news and true crime stories on filicide, 'murder suicide mother kids', and tens of other similar queries. The woman also read forum posts about what stabbing someone is like, investigated lethal doses of medication, and researched the locations of vital blood vessels and how long it takes for them to bleed out. The searches began a month before the killings and were interspersed with routine activities like dropping her kids off at school, attending their athletics training, and taking them to McDonald's for dinner, according to court documents seen by AAP.
Defence Argument
The woman's lawyer, Madeleine Avenell SC, argued that her client's actions might not have reflected an understanding that killing her children was wrong. 'She knows that the action is wrong in the sense that she can say "yes it's wrong to kill my child", but she didn't have the ability to exercise ... that wrongness,' she said.
Next Hearing
The hearing over the mother's mental health will resume on June 24, giving lawyers more time to consult with psychiatrists. Defence solicitor Paul McGirr told reporters outside court that Justice Cavanagh's concerns over the expert material were valid. 'This is a very sensitive matter and it has to be done properly, particularly when you're dealing with extreme charges,' he said. The accused murderer, who dialed into court from custody, hung her head low during the proceedings, leaving only a tangle of hair visible.
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