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published
November 29, 2018 15:33:11
A woman who drowned her son and tried to drown another child in South New South Wales last year was found not guilty for mental health reasons.
Key points:
- A court told a woman who had illusions that her child would have hurt her children
- The judge stated that the woman had a complete lack of understanding of her actions
- Psychiatrists said that a woman was suffering from a "constellation of conditions"
The 28-year-old girl, who can not be named for legal reasons, has been accused of murdering her five-year-old daughter and attempting the nine-year-old murder in the river Murray in Moama in March of last year.
Supreme Court Justice Richard Button admitted that the woman was mentally ill and was foolish to think that her ex-partner was going to kill her and her children, and felt that the way to protect them was to kill them herself.
The judge stated that he had accepted the psychiatrists' views that the woman was suffering from a "constellation of problems" including borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder , a psychotic disorder and possibly a borderline IQ and an autism spectrum disorder.
In making his findings, Judge Button stated that the woman did not at all understand the moral illegitimacy of her actions.
But he described his belief that she "was kind to her sons" as "utterly irrational".
"To be drowned by force to death is undoubtedly a terrible death," he said.
The woman had a history of drug abuse, but Judge Button stated that there was no evidence of direct intoxication at the time.
He also noted that even months after the incident, she did not have enough insight to condemn her actions.
During the two and a half day trial at Wagga Wagga, the woman swung from side to side and sometimes braided her hair.
While the verdict was pronounced, she seemed helpless. His mother, who appeared in court throughout the trial, cried.
During the trial, the court heard testimony of a woman's call to her mother on the morning of the incident, during which she had said: "You will not see us anymore".
The court then saw interviews with the woman, recorded less than 24 hours after the incident, and the surviving child while lying, bandaged in a hospital bed.
During her interview with the woman, which lasted nearly two hours, she cried, rocked and shouted "my babies" several times.
She described holding her children's head under the water because she "thought the harm was coming" and did not want to "hurt anymore".
"I could not be afraid of my children, so I had to kill them," she said.
In his interview with the police, the nine-year-old told that he was going to the river to fish with his mother and brother in the afternoon of the incident.
"My mother told me to dunk my head and said I did not want to," said the boy to the police during the recording.
"I just started running because she was trying to put my head under it.
"Then I started to hit her so she let me go in. Then she grabbed my brother and did the same thing."
After the incident, the woman went to a local hotel where the owner approached her to ask if she was okay.
The woman replied, "I drowned my babies, I had to do it, I had to drown my babies."
She also told the resort owner that she had been trying to drown but could not.
Defense attorney, Eric Wilson, said the woman had the illusion of hurting herself and feared that a former partner would kill her and her children.
"She thought that she and her children were in danger," he said.
"She believed that the only way to save them was to kill them.
"She thought to keep them safe."
He added that, even if the woman could not be held criminally responsible, the verdict of not guilty did not minimize the gravity of the "senseless loss".
Judge Button offered his condolences to the boys' family and the 28-year-old woman.
"I believe that if she has not already done so, she will eventually realize the enormity of the consequences of her actions."
He ordered that the woman be incarcerated in the mental health unit of Silverwater Prison and be released only when it is proven that she does not pose a threat to herself or to others.
Topics:
law-crime-and-justice
criminality,
murder and manslaughter,
courts and trials,
Moama-2731
Wagga Wagga-2650,
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