A mother accused of killing her two sons in their Blue Mountains home wrote a letter saying she could not 'leave my boys alone' and 'hope you can forgive me', a judge has told a court.
The boys, aged 9 and 11, were found with stab wounds in their beds at their Faulconbridge home in September 2024. The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was taken to hospital under police guard with self-inflicted injuries and later charged with two counts of murder (domestic violence).
She has pleaded not guilty to murdering the two young boys sometime on September 9 or 10 in 2024, and the Director of Public Prosecutions last month agreed to enter a special verdict of not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
The woman, who was suffering major depression at the time of the murders, had written 'I can't leave my boys alone … without my support' and 'hope you can forgive me' in a letter, Justice Richard Cavanagh told the Supreme Court of NSW during a hearing on Tuesday.
She had also made internet searches 'as to what she was going to do', he said. In order to deal with the matter under mental health legislation, Justice Cavanagh must be satisfied the woman did not know her actions were wrong. He raised concerns on Tuesday over whether this was established in expert psychiatric reports handed up to the court.
'I hasten to add, of course, I don't have a view about it at the moment but I must be satisfied, and on my reading (of a psychiatric report), I'm not sure the opinion's unanimous,' he said.
Justice Cavanagh pointed to one part of the psychiatric material that states: 'She knew and knows at a moral and legal level that killing was wrong … but she had a mental health impairment.' He added that whether she was suffering from depression was 'not the issue', and a statement that she had a mental health impairment alone did not satisfy the legislative requirements.
'This is not a case where the defendant decided without thought to do what she did because there's all these internet searches she's made as to what she was going to do,' Mr Cavanagh said.
The woman's lawyer Madeleine Avenell SC said she understood the report to mean her client knew 'it's wrong to kill my child' but 'didn't have the ability to exercise the knowledge of that wrongness', but Justice Cavanagh further pressed, asking her what part of the material pointed to this.
He was also queried what part of a letter written by the mother had led one of the expert psychiatrists to say she was not aware her actions were wrong. 'I don't understand where in the (letter) … that can be gleaned,' he said.
'I can't leave my boys alone … without my support,' Justice Cavanagh read from the letter. 'The rest of it is about her as I understand it … no doubt a reflection of her serious mental health condition … (it) needs to be more than a mental health impairment.'
The mother's letter also included the words '(I) hope you can forgive me', according to excerpts read out by Justice Cavanagh.
Ms Avenell successfully sought for the matter to be adjourned so she could ask the experts to elaborate on her client's mental health condition and determine whether oral evidence should be called.
Lawyer Paul McGirr, who is on the woman's legal team, told reporters outside court that the judge had raised valid concerns about the expert material. 'This is a very sensitive matter and it has to be done properly, particularly when you are dealing with extreme charges,' Mr McGirr told reporters.
'Everything needs to be answered appropriately in order for it to be diverted under the mental health provision. We understand that, and we'll get some further material from all the experts, as will the Crown, working together in respect to what we all appear to agree on that unfortunately she wasn't well at the time of offences.'
The matter will return before the courts briefly on June 24 to make determinations on the evidence and hearing.
