[ 2014-12-21 ]

Mersane Warria has been speaking to police from her hospital bed

Mother held over deaths of eight children in Cairns
A mother has been arrested on suspicion of murder
after seven of her own children and her teenage
niece were found dead in a mass stabbing in the
northern Australian city of Cairns.

The bodies of the eight children, aged from 15
months to 14 years, were found lying inside the
family’s small wooden cottage on the western
suburb of Manoora — an impoverished area heavily
populated by Aboriginals and Torres Strait
islanders.

Nearby them was the 37-year-old mother to seven of
the children, named locally as Mersane Warria, who
was badly injured with multiple stab wounds to the
chest.

Queensland police last night said that the mother
had been arrested on suspicion of murder and was
under police guard in hospital as she recovers
from what were thought to be self-inflicted
wounds.

“She’s stable and being looked after,” Bruno
Asnicar, a detective inspector with the force.

He said that she had not been charged at present
and was helping police with their inquiries,
adding she was “lucid and speaking”.

The children’s bodies were found by the
20-year-old brother of the seven dead siblings
shortly after noon on Friday.

Neighbours have reported hearing a woman who
sounded like Ms Warria screaming in the house on
Thursday night. She was heard to shout: “F***
the welfare people. Don’t let them take them
away from us. God bless us. Forgive me for what
I’ll do.”

One neighbour, Tahnia Ruttensteiner, had seen the
mother lugging personal possessions from her home
to her front yard on Thursday, saying she was
going to “make a new start”.

“She was having a bad night; I heard her
fighting with someone this morning about
4am,’’ she said.

Police said that the seven youngest children –
three girls aged two, 11, 12 and four boys aged
aged five, six, eight and nine – were Ms
Warria’s children. The eighth victim was her
14-year-old niece. Autopsies were due to be
carried out today as forensics teams continued to
scour the family home for evidence.

A second adult involved with the family was also
said by police to be receiving treatment in
hospital following the incident.

Neighbours said the children lived in the house
with their mother and a man believed to be their
stepfather. They reported that the family were not
known as a problem within the community as they
spoke of their shock.

Dozens of people laid flowers, candles and teddies
at a makeshift shrine in a park near to the house,
while vigils were held in the shattered
community.

The murders have rocked Australia, which is still
reeling from a siege in a Sydney cafe this week
that left two hostages and the Islamic extremist
hostage-taker dead.

Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister has
said the mass stabbings of the children were was
an “unspeakable” act.

Pedro Stephen, the Torres Shire council mayor,
said the entire region was grieving. “It’s
like a bomb has gone off,” he said. “Everyone
is in shock.”

Tim Nicholls, the Queensland state minister, was
among those who laid a wreath at the site.

“As a father myself with three children under
15, I can only imagine the grief this community is
feeling as they come to grips with the events,”
he said.

Source - The Times(UK)

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