Deniliquin mother found not guilty of murder after drowning son in Murray River near Moama

The 28-year-old admitted to drowning her five-year-old son and trying to drown his eight-year-old brother, but defended the charges on the grounds of mental illness.

She told police she had to kill her sons to “save them” from her ex-partner, who the court heard she had “delusional” fears about despite not having contacted him for a year. 

“I didn’t want my kids to see me die the way I’ve been talking about, so I put [one son] under the water and [the other] was watching from the riverbank, screaming,” she said.

“I did it to give my boys a better life. I didn’t want them to go through the pain I did.” 

In Wagga Supreme Court on Thursday, Justice Richard Button delivered his not guilty verdict before directing that the woman be committed to the “long-term care” of a mental health facility. 

“Although the accused will not be held criminally responsible for her actions, due to her mental state on the afternoon of March 2, 2017, there is no question that her acts directly caused the death of the younger boy, and came very close to causing the death of the elder,” Justice Button said. 

“The accused will be committed to the long-term care of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. That tribunal must not release the accused into the community unless and until it is satisfied that the accused will not seriously endanger any person, including herself.” 

Reviewing the week’s evidence, Justice Button concluded the mother was suffering from “a disease of the mind which led to a defect of reason” at the time of the drowning.

He referenced a lengthy recorded interview with police she participated in the following morning, during which she exhibited behaviour he could only assess as “disturbed”. 

“Her moods and presentation varied from appearing dazed and flat, to distressed and hysterical, to agitated and enraged,” Justice Button said.

“I noted during the trial that the accused was distressed, seemingly distracted, rocking from side to side, and at some stages absent-mindedly plaiting her hair.” 

The trial as it happened:

Justice Button said a number of witness statements brought forward during the trial from different parties who interacted with the mother on and before the day of the drowning supported that assessment. 

The day before the drowning, she met with her parole officer and said she had a “gut instinct” that she was unsafe before she began agitated and starting pacing around the room.

Later that same day, she met with a mental health worker, who described her as being “very distressed, sobbing and crying, and spoke of herself and her children as not being safe”, but could not explain why. 

Just hours before the drowning, two convenience store workers also reported hearing the woman say “Don’t worry about coming and getting us, you will never see us and the boys again” when speaking with her mother on the phone. 

After the incident, the owner of a Moama water resort described the mother stumbling onto his property, soaking wet and crying before admitting what she had done.

“I drowned my babies, then I tried to drown myself, but I couldn’t,” the witness reported her to have said.

“I just want a bullet. I wish I was dead.” 

While Justice Button said the woman’s mental state had led her to foster “delusional” beliefs that her ex-partner was going to kill her and her sons. 

“Tragically, by that time, the accused had convinced herself that she and her sons were in mortal danger from a former romantic partner of hers,” he said.

“She had come fervently to believe that he would rape and murder her in front of her boys, and thereafter murder the two of them as well.

“As a result of her firmly held belief, the accused was convinced that the kinder fate for her two sons would be for them to be drowned at the hands of their mother.”

However, Justice Button stressed that those beliefs were not based in fact. 

“Whether that gentleman had, as the accused claims, ever actually inflicted violence on her of any kind is something that I cannot and do not determine,” he said.

“But it is important that there is no evidence at all that, after her release from custody in early 2017, the accused and that man had had any contact, or that she and her sons were actually in danger.” 

In concluding his remarks, Justice Button said his verdicts of not guilty on the grounds of mental illness should not be seen as “lessening” her actions. 

“My verdicts of not guilty do not lessen the overall tragedy of this matter for a moment, the further tragedy of the literally senseless loss of the life of a member of the community, and the particular poignancy of the loss of life of a child,” he said.

“I extend my condolences to all of those who have suffered, and will do so long into the future, as a result of the events of March 2, 2017. And I respectfully include in those condolences the accused herself, because I believe that, if she has not done so already, in due course she will come to see the enormity of the consequences of her actions.”

Justice Button ordered the woman be detained in the designated mental health pods at Mulawa Correctional Centre in Silverwater indefinitely. 

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