Murder-Suicide That Has Rocked the Small Town

Elspeth McInnes AM Convenor WEAVE Inc PO Box 452 GOODWOOD SA 5034

Senate Finance and Public Administration Committees PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600

Phone: +61 2 6277 3439 Fax: +61 2 6277 5809 [email protected]

31.7.2014

Response to Domestic Violence in Australia Inquiry

Dear Committee

Please find attached WEAVE’s submission Domestic Violence in Australia Inquiry. Please accept our Apologies for the late submission. WEAVE would be happy to speak further to any aspect of the submission.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Elspeth McInnes AM Convenor WEAVE Inc

Women Everywhere Advocating Violence Elimination Inc (Australia)

Women Everywhere Advocating Violence Elimination Inc (WEAVE Inc), formed in 2009, is a National Women’s Alliance that aims to eliminate gendered violence (including sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, sexual exploitation and trafficking). As a non-partisan coalition WEAVE Inc brings together groupings that have sometimes worked separately from one another, such as sexual assault services, women’s health services, women’s legal services, domestic and family violence services, and organisations working against trafficking. In drawing together key stakeholders that make up the ‘violence against women sector’ as well as survivors, and activist and interest groups, WEAVE embeds a wealth and diversity of experience and expertise within a single body.

WEAVE Inc Vision

To ensure that all women and children are able to live free from all forms of violence and abuse.

WEAVE Inc Values and Principles

HUMAN RIGHTS

WEAVE Inc employs a human rights framework that recognises that gendered violence is one of the most serious and widespread violations of fundamental human rights, in particular, the right not to be treated in an inhuman and degrading way, the rights to respect, physical, sexual and psychological integrity.

FEMINIST FRAMEWORK

WEAVE Inc works within a feminist framework that recognises that gendered violence is both a consequence and cause of gender inequity, embedded deeply within all levels of our society, and that efforts to end such violence must be accountable to women and promote women’s empowerment and gender equality.

EQUITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSIVITY

WEAVE Inc is committed to representing and working respectfully with the diversity of women in Australia. WEAVE Inc recognises, and seeks to advocate and lobby for, the particular and urgent needs of Indigenous women, women from immigrant, refugee and/or non-English speaking backgrounds, women with disabilities, as well as the challenges faced by young women, older women and women in rural and remote areas.

WEAVE Objectives

(a) To provide leadership and advocacy at state and national levels in relation to all aspects of gendered violence. (b) To bring together in a single body the key stakeholders concerned with all aspects of gendered violence in order to access and disseminate the wealth and diversity of knowledge within the sector as a whole. (c) To contribute to and monitor policies, legislation and programs which impact on women and children experiencing gendered violence. (d) To promote and prioritise equity of access to services for all women including Aboriginal women, Torres Strait Islander women, women from immigrant, refugee and/or non-English speaking background, women in rural and isolated areas, older women, young women and women with disabilities. (e) To promote greater community awareness of gendered violence and its personal and social consequences using community development and educational strategies. (f) To build and promote alliances and collaborative relationships with other key stakeholders and networks. (g) To promote, further develop and disseminate ‘cutting edge’ knowledge of gendered violence arising from practice, research, community and activism. (h) To connect with international developments in advocacy, research and practice concerning gendered violence.

1. the prevalence and impact of domestic violence in Australia as it affects all Australians and, in particular, as it affects: - women living with a disability, and - women from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds;

The prevalence data from ABS indicates around 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence since the age of 15 and that rates are much higher for ATSI women and children and women and children living with disabilities.

The higher rate of abuse of ATSI women and children is related to the effects of colonizing violence – massacres, loss of lands, loss of language, loss of cultural practice, loss of children and the continuing traumas of racial discrimination, imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment and poverty.

The higher rate of abuse of women and children living with a disability is related to reliance on others for care and vulnerability.

The following is a list of domestic violence deaths in South Australia over the past 8 years:

From July 08 to July 2014 SA have 26 fatal events against a background of domestic violence 20 dead women + 3 dead children + 15 dead men = 38 dead people over 6 years. All the dead women and children were killed by men. Ten of the dead men killed themselves, another was shot dead by Police, two died after being set alight by their wife after years of his domestic abuse of her, one was killed by his wife during a domestic dispute and another was killed by his son. ______

2014 2 fatal events: 1 dead woman +1 dead man + 1 dead child = 2 murders, 1 suicide. Men = 1 suicide 2013 2 fatal events: 2 dead women = 2 murders 2012 5 fatal events: 3 dead women + 5 Dead men Men = 2 murder, 3 suicides 2011 3 fatal events: 3 dead women + 2 dead men Men = 2 suicides 2010 2 fatal events. 2 dead women 2009 9 fatal events: 7 dead women + 5 dead men + 2 dead children = 13 dead people Men 3 suicides, 1 shot by Police, 1 Killed by DV victim july -Dec 2008 : 3 fatal events; 2 dead women + 2 dead men = 4 dead people. Men 1 suicide, 1 killed by DV victim

See clippings from the most recent below: One dead child Murder Father charged with murdering three-year-old son after taking him from family home at Stepney

July 08, 2014 5:03PM

Police confirmed that the boy had been stabbed in the ute.

Superintendent Graeme Adcock, the police officer in charge of eastern Adelaide, said the man had been charged with murder but was undergoing surgery and would not be interviewed until Wednesday evening at the earliest. “Understandably the boy’s mother is overcome by grief and police have not yet been able to take a statement from her,” he said. “At this stage of the investigation there is no indication of any history of domestic violence.”

..Inspector McDaid said the mother had concerns for the safety of her child.

“This is a tragic set of circumstances and a tragic incident and our sympathy goes out to the family,” he said.“It was also a difficult incident for the police and the ambulance officers to deal with when they arrived on scene.“(The father) approached the police ... and told them his child had been injured.”

One dead woman and one dead man Murder suicide Footballer's stepson in murder - suicide tragedy Mum's life was robbed by a coward Advertiser, Sunday, May 18, 2014 Graziella Daillér (pictured) was a wonderful mother, an adored grandmother and beautiful soul. But her life was cut short on Friday when she was killed by her violent de facto partner, Dion Muir, stepson of former VFL and SAN FL star Robbie Muir, in a murder - suicide at Encounter Bay. Yesterday, her daughters said their mother had repeatedly tried to escape the relationship but had been failed by authorities. They have pleaded for greater intervention and harsher penalties against perpetrators of domestic violence and implored victims to leave their tormentors

One dead woman Murder Murdered mum battled cancer Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Saturday, May 4, 2013 Author: POLICE REPORTER, THOMAS CONLIN A YOUNG mother found murdered at Aldinga Beach was battling cancer, a friend has revealed. Lana Towers, 25, was found dead in her Ocean St home when paramedics were called just after 4am yesterday. Police said the woman's two children - who are now in the care of relatives - were home at the time of her death. A Christies Beach man, 32, who was also at the property when police arrived, was questioned and later charged with murder. He will appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court on Monday. Neighbour and friend Amy Macpanas said Ms Towers lived for her two children, Layla, 2, and Myke, 4. ``They're beautiful kids. I don't know what's going to happen to them now,'' she said. ``She had cancer as well and she just had a relapse so I hadn't seen her for a while, but our kids have played together since we moved here 12 months ago.'' Ms Macpanas said Lana had a ``difficult'' relationship with the father of her two children: ``She was a full-time mum - her kids were her life.''

One dead woman Murder Friends remember tough, sassy lady Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Saturday, March 30, 2013 Author: ADAM HEGARTY ON first blush, Rachele ``Sassy'' Rowlinson may have appeared ``rough and tough''. But to those who knew the 42-year-old she was a popular woman and a fiercely protective mother of two children. Those children will now spend the Easter holidays without their mum after she was stabbed to death in the lower mid-north town of Eudunda. Police found Ms Rowlinson's body outside a friend's house after they were called to the Hannan St property about 12.20am yesterday after reports of a dispute. Police said Ms Rowlinson - who lived at Point Pass about 11km north of Eudunda - had been killed by a single stab wound to her chest. Port Pirie CIB and Major Crime Detectives yesterday arrested a Eudunda man, 43, on a murder charge.

August 31 2012 One dead man Wife ‘burned husband alive at home in bed’ Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Wednesday, March 5, 2014: ANDREW DOWDELL A WOMAN set fire to her wheelchair -bound husband’s bed then “calmly” phoned emergency services to report the fatal blaze, the Supreme Court has heard. Beverley Dalziel, 47, is on trial in the Supreme Court for the murder of her 67-year-old husband, Charles, who burned to death inside the couple’s Barmera home on the morning of August 31, 2012. Prosecutor Emma Wildman told the jury the couple had endured an acrimonious relationship and that Mr Dalziel was confined to a wheelchair and was “totally reliant” on his wife. “They more than did not get along, they did not like each other at all. They fought, sometimes these fights would get physical,” she said. Ms Wildman said one witness who rented a granny flat from the couple had repeatedly heard Dalziel tell her husband “words to the effect that ‘I am going to kill you one day’.” The jury heard that in the weeks before his death, Mr Dalziel had called for an ambulance four times and was once found bruised on the floor wearing only a nappy. The court heard an investigation revealed the origin of the fire was the foot of Mr Dalziel’s bed and that an accelerant such as petrol had been used to “get the fire going”. Ms Wildman said Dalziel had told police she believed the fire was caused either by an electrical fault, her husband’s habit of smoking in bed or that Mr Dalziel had set his own bed on fire. “Bed-bound, Mr Dalziel was hardly capable of (lighting the fire) and she was the only other person in the house,” Ms Wildman said. “(Dalziel) was fed up with everything to do with her husband at that stage, so she took the drastic step of setting fire to his bedroom to solve the problem once and for all.” The jury heard Dalziel had denied any knowledge of a five-litre petrol tin and cigarette lighter found in the kitchen of the home, but prosecutors said witnesses would testify having seen her carrying the tin on numerous occasions before the fire.

Two dead men Murder suicide Family's double tragedy Advertiser, Thursday, October 4, 2012 Author: CHIEF POLICE REPORTER STEVE RICE POLICE will investigate whether mental illness played a role in the deaths of a father and son who were both found with stab wounds at their Morphett Vale home yesterday. Ambulance crews were alerted to the incident when an agency representative - believed to be a registered nurse - discovered the two men in their Raphael Cres unit, about 9.30am yesterday during a routine appointment. The son , 51, was found dead in the unit while his father , who was 84, was taken to Flinders Medical Centre, where he later died. Police cordoned off the house as detectives and Crime Scene Investigators arrived to examine the complex crime scene. Detective Chief Inspector John Schrader said investigators didn't believe that there had been anyone else involved in the incident. He was quick to reassure the community that the incident was not random. However, he said information about the nature of the attack was still sketchy. ``It appears at this early stage from our initial investigation that this is a tragic domestic violence incident that has occurred between a father and son ,'' he said.

One dead woman Murder Whyalla Man Charged, The Advertiser October 4 2012 A Whyalla man has been remanded in custody after being charged with the murder of a local woman on Monday. Richard James Webb 30 appeared in Whyalla Magistrates court yesterday and made no application for bail. Webb was arrested at an Ebert St house after police were unable to revive the woman who collapsed during an alleged domestic disturbance.

One dead woman and one dead man Murder suicide Shot pair dead for days 24.4. 12 by Doug Robinson The Advertiser The bodies of lone-time Arno Bay resident and the woman who he is suspected of murdering lay in their home undiscovered for days before they were found, residents of the Eyre Peninsula town say. Residents believed Robert 'Jack Calliss. 80 shot Sharon Wake before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide that has rocked the small town.

One dead woman and one dead man Murder suicide Elderly couple's bodies in car Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Author: BRYAN LITTLELY, THOMAS CONLIN POLICE are investigating the tragic deaths of an elderly couple at Gilles Plains yesterday, which are being investigated as a murder - suicide . Concerns were raised when Arthur Wilson, 83, and his wife Dorris Wilson, 85, could not be contacted. Police found their bodies in a car at their home at 9am. It is understood Mrs Wilson had been seriously ill with Alzheimer's disease for several years and was cared for by her husband. ``Police do not believe that any other person was involved in the circumstances surrounding the death,'' a spokesman said. The couple's two dogs also were found dead in the car.

2011

One dead woman and one dead man Murder suicide Teen girl gunned down in street at Walkley Heights by: Bryan Littlely and Adam Hegarty From: The Advertiser November 30, 2011 12:00am WITNESSES watched in horror as a young man ambushed his former high-school girlfriend, shooting her twice before turning the gun on himself. The 22-year-old gunman reportedly lay in wait on a side road near bus stop 34B on RM Williams Drive, at Walkley Heights, for the 16-year-old on Monday.

One dead woman and one dead man Murder suicide Murder-suicide in Adelaide's northern suburbs shocks couple's friends by: Sam Kelton and Tom Bowden From: The Advertiser NOV 11 2011 THEY were a long-time married couple living in Adelaide's north like thousands of others their age. But their lives took a tragic twist yesterday when they died 13km apart in a suspected murder- suicide.It is believed the man, 75, contacted a family friend to come to their Tozer Rd home about 7.30am.On arrival, the friend found the body of the man's 67-year-old wife and called emergency services.The husband was still at the home when paramedics arrived but fled about 8am in his red Ford station wagon sparking an intense manhunt and air search across the northern suburbs.His body was found by police inside the vehicle on Purling Rd, Edinburgh, at about 12.30pm. Neighbours suggested there had been a history of domestic violence in the couple's relationship.

One dead woman Murder Suspicious death at Strathalbyn by Police Reporter Amy Noonan From: The Advertiser April 27, 2011

A MAN has been charged with the murder of a woman whose body was found in a car on a roadside near Strathalbyn yesterday. The 31-year-old Strathalbyn man was believed to have been in a relationship with the 28-year-old Adelaide Hills woman, whose body was found about 12.45pm yesterday.It had been wrapped in a quilt or blanket inside a blue Toyota Camry sedan parked off Lowana Rd. April 28 2011 The Advertiser THE partner of a woman whose body was found in a car near Strathalbyn appeared in court charged with her murder yesterday. Jason Lee Gardiner, 31, of Strathalbyn, tried to shield his face and kept his gaze lowered during a brief appearance in the Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday. He is charged with the murder of Katherine Dulchie Towner. They were believed to have been in a relationship.Her body was found wrapped in a blanket in a car outside Strathalbyn about 12.45pm on Tuesday.Deputy Chief Magistrate Dr Andrew Cannon put the estimated time of death at anytime between April 20 and 27.Nick Vadasz, for Gardiner, did not apply for bail, and his client remained silent as he was remanded in custody. Some aspects of the case have been suppressed and Gardiner will appear in court again in June.

2010

One dead woman Murder

March 22 2010 From Adelaide Now http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south- australia/woman-critical-after-convention-centre-stabbing/story-e6frea83-1225843513448 A WOMAN has died in hospital after she was stabbed inside the Adelaide Convention Centre during a private function. The woman was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital by ambulance following the attack just before 11.15pm.Security staff with dogs detained a man until police arrived and shut the centre down.The woman, 44, of Brooklyn Park, died a short time later.A 55-year-old man from Para Hills was arrested and charged with murder.AdelaideNow understands the stabbing happened at a party being held at the Convention Centre.Police believe it was related to a domestic dispute.

One dead woman Murder AdelaideNow february 22, 2010 Husband of stabbed dead woman yet to be questioned by Major Crime detectives From: 1:36PM MAJOR Crime detectives are yet to speak to the husband of a woman found with fatal stab wounds in their Happy Valley home. Paramedics found the body of a woman, 40, about 6.15am in the Jerilderie Drive, home yesterday after they were called to the scene by the dead woman's father-in- law. Her husband, 39, was taken to the Flinders Medical Centre with stab wounds. Police hope an autopsy will shed light on the circumstances of the woman's death. Jury finds husband guilty of murder; rules out suicide pact

JORDANNA SCHRIEVER, COURT REPORTER From: The Advertiser March 16, 2011 4:05PM JODIE Cocks' vicious stabbing death was murder, not a suicide pact, a Supreme Court jury has found. After deliberating for just over an hour today, a jury of ten men and two women found her husband Craig Aaron Cocks guilty of murder.Before the verdict was announced, Cocks, 37, entered the dock wearing an army green coloured shirt.He took a deep breath and looked at his lawyer, then the public gallery where members of his family and his former wife's family waited.On hearing of his guilt, which carries a maximum prison term of life, Cocks shook his head.Outside the courtroom, supporters of Mrs Cocks could be heard saying they wanted to thank the jury for its verdict..It is the second time Cocks has stood trial for the murder after a jury who heard the case late last year was unable to reach a verdict.At the beginning of the trial, prosecutor Emily Telfer told the jury Mrs Cocks had been stabbed 13 times and strangled in the couple's Happy Valley home in February 2010.She said the couple, who married in 2007, had been celebrating Mrs Cocks' 40th birthday "in good spirits" the evening before.Lawyers for Cocks had told the jury the stabbing death was part of a suicide pact.

2009 One dead woman & one dead man Murder suicide

Woman's death at Henley Beach treated as suspicious November 16, 2009 05:30pm A WOMAN, 27, has been found dead at Henley Beach hours after her de facto partner died at another house in what is believed to be a murder-suicide. Detectives found the man, 35, at his Glynde St, Albert Park, house about 7am this morning. His death is not determined to be suspicious. They were unable to find his partner at the time.

One dead woman Man charged with murder Article from: RENATO CASTELLO August 29, 2009 09:45am A 48-YEAR-OLD Pennington man is facing murder charges over the death of a 56-year-old woman in a suspected domestic dispute last night. Police were called to a house on Torrens Rd just after 10pm where they found the body of a woman dead in the premises.

One dead woman + one dead man Murder suicide EXPLOSION Police search for clues to suspicious deaths - Body in house fire `restrained' Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Friday, August 28, 2009 Author: MICHAEL MILNES, POLICE REPORTER, MATT WILLIAMS THEY were unknown to their neighbours, their home was surrounded by a 2m-high Colorbond fence and they suffered horrific, mysterious deaths.The couple , aged in their early thirties, lost their lives in the pre-dawn blaze at a house in a modest suburban street south of Adelaide. Last night, it was unclear how they died but police were treating their deaths as suspicious.

One dead woman Murder Man faces bedside court on murder charge June 22, 2009

A court hearing at a hospital bedside has been held for a man accused of murdering the mother of his three-month-old child. Mark Scott Bampton is being detained under South Australia's Mental Health Act after being arrested on Sunday. The 36-year-old was arrested in Adelaide after his 32- year-old partner's body was found in a shed at a property at Angas Valley, east of Adelaide.

One dead man One dead baby Murder suicide one stabbed woman one stabbed baby Man, boy found dead inside house Article from: AAP By Michael Milnes March 16, 2009 10:28am Two-year-old, Man, 24, dead at home Woman, 21, baby have stab wounds Police say family known to them During a psychotic rampage David Wyatt, 24, repeatedly stabbed his partner and severed his 15-day-old daughter's ear before killing himself and his two-year-old son Jakob in March 2009.

One dead woman+ one dead child Murder

Man in court over double killing at Angle Park Article from: Error! Filename not specified. JORDANA SCHRIEVER, AMY NOONAN March 05, 2009 03:54pm A VIETNAMESE man has appeared in court over the horrific fatal stabbing of his ex-wife and her toddler son at Angle Park last night. Minh Ly Tran, 49, surrendered to police after they were called to a house in Stuart St about 7pm, where they found the bodies of Trac Nguyen, 40, and Domenic Xuan Yu, 2.

One dead woman + one dead man Murder Shot by Police

Riverland couple found dead inside Barmera house KEN McGREGOR, DOUG ROBERTSON February 27, 2009 02:37pm A BARMERA man has been shot dead after killing his partner and opening fire on police, wounding an elite STAR Group officer.

One dead woman AAP News: SA:Murder accused asks for bail AAP News (Australia) - Friday, August 20, 2010 Murder Readability: >12 grade level (Lexile: 1400L) By Tim Dornin ADELAIDE, Aug 20 AAP - It was "almost inconceivable" that a woman killed in a New Year's Day apartment fire in Adelaide died by accident as she tried to flee the flames, a court has heard. Malaika Mukantare, 21, died in the blaze in January, 2009, and her body was found under a coffee table in the lounge room of the home. Her husband Luka Kageregere, who escaped unhurt from the burning building along with the couple's 18-month-old son, has been charged with her murder as well as two counts of arson. He applied to be released on bail on Friday, with his counsel, Greg Mead, telling the Adelaide Magistrates Court that it could not be discounted that the fire was started by accident. But prosecutor Carmen Matteo said it would be alleged that Kageregere, 48, had admitted to an associate that he had punched his wife in the head before her death and also that he started the fire. Ms Matteo said the blaze had been sparked by leaking gas after a heater had been forcibly removed from a wall. She said while Kageregere told police his wife had become "lost" while trying to flee the smoke and flames, her body was found underneath a rectangular-shaped coffee table. "It is almost inconceivable that someone trying to flee would end up, face up, underneath a piece of furniture," she said. The prosecutor said it was also significant that Kageregere and his son escaped the burning home unscathed, with no suggestion they had been exposed to smoke or flames. Mr Mead said while leaking gas had fuelled the fire, there was no evidence about how the fire had been ignited. He said the dead woman's body was found next to a bag of baby clothes, suggesting she was trying to flee. He also said there was no evidence of domestic issues between the couple. However, Ms Matteo said the prosecution would allege there was significant discord in the marriage and that Kageregere was often angry and violent towards his wife . Magistrate Joseph Baldino ruled that Kageregere could pursue his bail application and ordered a report on his suitability for home detention. However, Mr Baldino said the man's chances of being released were slim and remanded him in custody to appear in court again next Friday. Both Ms Mukantare and Kageregere came to Australia from Burundi in 2005, Ms Mukantare after spending 10 years in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Father ready to confess to wife's manslaughter Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Author: SEAN FEWSTER, COURT REPORTER FOR two years, Luka Kageregere has insisted his wife died in their burning flat because she was lost in the flames - not because he killed her. Yesterday, as his murder trial was due to begin, Kageregere's lawyers told the Supreme Court their client was willing to confess to manslaughter. Prosecutor Sandi McDonald, who had prepared for a month-long trial, said the offer would be considered by Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras, QC. However, she warned it would likely be refused. ``Defence has put an offer to plead to a lesser charge , and the director must instruct on that,'' she said. ``He has looked at this matter in the past, and it is unlikely the offer will be accepted.'' Kageregere, 48, was due to stand trial yesterday - in the absence of a jury - on one count of murder and one count of arson. Previously, prosecutors have alleged he murdered Malaika Mukantare, 21, on New Year's Day 2009. The offence allegedly occurred in the third-floor Camden Park flat the couple shared with their son Joseph. Prosecutors have also alleged Kageregere set the flat - in a multi-storey building on Anzac Highway - alight before escaping with Joseph.

Murder accused `watched wife burn' Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Wednesday, August 17, 2011 LUKA Kageregere exuded ``eerie calm'' as he held his toddler son in his arms and watched his apartment and wife burn, a court has heard. Kageregere, 48, appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday for the start of his murder trial. However, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson before the trial got under way. Prosecutors will continue to pursue the charge of murder for the New Year's Day death of Malaika Mukantare in 2009. Prosecutor Sandi McDonald told the court Ms Mukantare was found lying naked and dead in the lounge room of the couple's Anzac Highway apartment. ``She was alive when the fire started,'' Ms McDonald said. Greg Mead, for Kageregere, said his client admitted to starting the fire and contributing to his wife's death but the issue was intent. ``He struck his wife in the course of a drunken argument,'' he said. ``He thought she was dead. He lit the fire when he panicked and believed the deceased was already dead.''

One Dead Man Killed by DV Victim December 2009 Edithburgh. October 10 2012 Advertiser report “Woman Jailed for Self-defence stabbing” IN A desperate act of self defence, Catherine Therese Collyer reached for a kitchen knife and stabbed her beloved. Collyer, 49, of Goodwood, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter but claimed she never intended to kill Troy Fraser Hannah - she just wanted him to stop hitting her.Today she was jailed for three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of nine months. Collyer stabbed her partner of two years in the chest at their Edithburgh bed and breakfast in December, 2009 after a domestic dispute.

2008 One dead man Killed by DV Victim Extract Adelaide Advertiser report 14 april 2011: re manslaughter December 2008 Narayan and her husband, Satish, entered into an arranged Hindu marriage in July 1986.Three weeks later, he began physically and verbally abusing her.The violence continued throughout their life together, with Narayan believing she deserved mistreatment for not being a "perfect wife".In December 2008, she discovered Satish was having an affair and set him on fire with petrol and an "angel candle" given to her by a fortune teller.

One dead woman + one dead man Murder suicide

AAP News: SA: Couple found shot dead in South Australia AAP News (Australia) - Saturday, November 15, 2008 MELBOURNE, Nov 15 AAP - A couple have been found shot dead on their property in the rural community of Port Neill in South Australia, about 80km north of Port Lincoln. A South Australian police spokesman says preliminary investigations point to a murder-suicide. They say the couple were found by a member of the public who alerted police at 1pm (CST) today. "Early investigations indicate it may be a murder-suicide,"

One dead woman Murder Port Augusta footballer Kane Allen said his estranged wife killed herself. Forensic experts thought otherwise - The horrific clues that revealed a murderer Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Saturday, July 31, 2010 Readability: 10-12 grade level (Lexile: 1200L) Author: COURT REPORTER JORDANNA SCHRIEVER IT had all the hallmarks of a suicide but, to the trained eye of a forensic pathologist, the death of Melissa Koch was anything but self-inflicted.

On July 27, 2008, Ms Koch's estranged husband, local football identity Kane Rodney Jonathan Allen, found her body in the shed of her Osborne St, Port Augusta , home.

At least, that's what he told investigators, insisting time and again he had found her hanging like she was ``sitting in air''. But numerous bruises, a ripped fingernail and atypical hanging marks led experienced police investigators to doubt Allen's account.

Two days later, in Adelaide, forensic pathologist Dr John Gilbert conducted an autopsy on Ms Koch. He had carried out more than 5000 autopsies since 1992 and, of those, 251 were suicide hangings, a further five were ligature strangulations and nine strangulation by hand.

2. the factors contributing to the present levels of domestic violence;

Australia has a culture which is supportive of violence. Our laws allow parents to use physical violence to discipline children. Parents’ use of violence models this to children. With one in four households implicated in domestic violence it is important to recognise that physical ‘discipline’ cannot be assumed to be controlled, or benign. Countries which have outlawed physical discipline of children have experienced significant declines in family homicides.

Violence in relationships is met by civil laws for protection orders as a first response. Homicide defences in most states allow a defence of provocation for perpetrators to justify the homicide.

Violence against women is variously seen as (a) a product of her provocation (b) a mutual activity in which both willingly engage ( c) a failure of the victim to act to protect herself. These concepts are played out in the legal system through the defence of provocation, the common failure to charge and prosecute domestic assaults, the concept of ‘common couple conflict’ and the questioning of why women don’t leave violent relationships. If they do, and they have children, the family law system will routinely place children in the care of the user of violence, thus undermining her attempts to achieve safety through separation. Family law processes routinely discount and ignore past domestic violence in making orders for children’s time with each parent.

Many men believe they are entitled to control and dominate women and that violence is a reasonable practice to achieve domination. Children who are subjected to physical violence by their parents learn that violence against others is acceptable. They carry these attitudes into adulthood. Socio-cultural beliefs about men and women and gender role stereotypes locate women as subordinate to men. These are reflected in religious practices which limit women’s participation, workplace practices which pay women less than men for comparable work, political practices which marginalize women’s participation in politics, attitudes to men’s and women’s clothing and conduct and beliefs about the ‘nature’ of men and women in which women are invoked variously as inherently untrustworthy, juvenile, grasping and vengeful – as ‘gold-diggers’ ‘sluts’ or ’bitches’.

Victims of domestic violence and coronial reports into domestic violence deaths have highlighted that reports to police do not reliably receive a helpful response, that there are difficulties obtaining protection orders, that protection orders can be breached with impunity and that domestic assaults often do not result in arrest, charges, prosecutions or convictions. The message to victims is ‘there is not help’ and the message to perpetrators is that they can get away with their violence.

3. the adequacy of policy and community responses to domestic violence;

Many responses to domestic violence tend to construct the violence as particular to the circumstances at the time (eg separation) or the characteristics of the victims and offender (common couple conflict) rather than recognizing domestic violence as a chosen course of conduct to achieve power and control over another. Offenders choose to use violence because it achieves their goals. They choose where, when and how to use it. Australian governments need to be clear that violence is not acceptable and is always the fault of the perpetrator. The dominant ‘skeptical paradigm’ of disbelief of victims needs to be replaced with ‘offender skepticism’ which regards the alleged perpetrator’s claims with a need for independent verification.

Claims by men’s groups that ‘women are just as violent as men’ need to be challenged by the data from criminal and coroners courts and health reports clearly showing that 4 out of every 5 intimate partner homicides involve a dead woman and that domestic violence is the single biggest contributor to illness injury and death of women aged 15-45.

Major reforms are needed to state police and court systems and laws and to the family law system. There needs to be much greater attention to holding perpetrators accountable for their violence, with safety of victims as the central value. Currently the system is skewed to perpetrator rights.

Police need to attend reports and ensure that they use the powers available to them to achieve safety for victims. These include arrest, charging, prosecution, exclusion from premises, protection orders for adult and child victims. Perpetrators who are repeatedly charged with domestic violence need to be subject to escalating penalties to reflect their persistent behaviour. Repeat offenders should also be restricted in their capacity to bring women into Australia from other countries as part of marriage visas. A domestic violence register of offenders should be maintained and shared nationally.

Allegations of violence or abuse of any sort raised in family law proceedings must be investigated by state authorities before any decisions are made with regard to post-separation parenting. Children must not be placed in the care of parents who would fail a ‘working with children’ check.

Centrelink needs to be much more organised in its responses to women and children leaving domestic violence to ensure they are informed and have access to Crisis Payments and exemptions from workforce participation and from child support claims if appropriate. Currently victims who are not informed routinely miss out on protections.

4. the effects of policy decisions regarding housing, legal services, and women‘s economic independence on the ability of women to escape domestic violence;

Limited access to services and family law provisions prevent victims leaving violent partners. Lack of legal aid, lack of safe housing, lack of effective policing and a family law system which largely ignores violence against women continue to limit women’s capacity to achieve safety by leaving the relationship.

5. how the Federal Government can best support, contribute to and drive the social, cultural and behavioural shifts required to eliminate violence against women and their children; and

The single biggest contribution the commonwealth could make is to take violence and abuse seriously in the family law system and prevent perpetrators from having any family rights. The federal government also needs to regularly campaign in support of changing violence-supportive attitudes.

6. any other related matters. The following are cases of filicide in the context of separation by gender of perpetrator. Compiled By Elspeth McInnes

Family violence toll Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) - Monday, February 17, 2014

Author: ELLEN WHINNETT

SEVEN young children and babies have been killed in just 20 months in horrific family violence attacks in Victoria. The youngest was an eight-week-old girl and the oldest a nine-year-old boy. At least six of the seven were allegedly killed by a parent or step-parent. The appalling figures are revealed after 11-year-old LukeBatty was killed by his father, Greg Anderson, in a vicious attack at a cricket oval in Tyabb on Wednesday night. Luke’s brutal death, and the grace and strength of his mother, Rosie Batty , has again shone a spotlight on the insidious scourge of family violence. The head of Victoria Police’s family violence unit, Det-Supt Rod Jouning, said children were more at riskof being killed by a family member than a stranger. Figures released by Victoria Police and the Coroner’s Office show between October 2011 and July 2013, five little boys and two little girls died in family violence incidents: THE George brothers — Philip, 9, and Mathew, 5 — who died at the hands of their mother Anita at Clayton South on June 1, 2012. Their mother also took her own life. DIVESH Sharma, 5, and his little sister, Divya, 3, who were killed by their father Niresh in their Glen Waverley home on June 1, 2012. Their father also killed their mother, Preetika, before killing himself. AN eight-week-old baby girl, who, along with her twin sister, was seriously injured in April, 2012. The child suffered skull fractures and did not survive surgery. Her twin suffered skull fractures and other broken bones, but survived. The girl’s mother will face the Supreme Court next month on a charge of infanticide, and one charge of recklessly causing serious injury. A 12-MONTH-OLD boy who died in his house in Richmond on May 15, 2013. His stepfather has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to the boy’s death. ASERIOUSLY injured 14-week-old baby boy, who died at the Royal Children’s Hospital on October 23, 2011, after being transferred from Colac Hospital a week earlier. The Herald Sun does not suggest the child’s parents or step-parents were involved. Victoria Police released their statistics as part of the Herald Sun’s ongoing Take a Stand campaign against family violence. Det-Supt Jouning said paternal killings were usually committed where there was a history of family violence, or a couple were in the early stages of separation. He said maternal killings were more likely to occur when the mother was suffering a mental illness or was the victim of ongoing family violence.

The following list provides details of children killed in the context of separation.

1. One dead child Murder Father charged with murdering three-year-old son after taking him from family home at Stepney

July 08, 2014 5:03PM

Police confirmed that the boy had been stabbed in the ute. Superintendent Graeme Adcock, the police officer in charge of eastern Adelaide, said the man had been charged with murder but was undergoing surgery and would not be interviewed until Wednesday evening at the earliest. “Understandably the boy’s mother is overcome by grief and police have not yet been able to take a statement from her,” he said. “At this stage of the investigation there is no indication of any history of domestic violence.”

..Inspector McDaid said the mother had concerns for the safety of her child.

2. April 2014 2 dead children Dad charged as family grieves for slain sisters Australian, The (Australia) - Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Author: Chip Le Grand

SAVANNAH and Indianna were well looked after. The rows of carefully paired shoes and neatly hanging clothes in their shared bedroom at their father’s place spoke of an ordered, attentive upbringing. When homicide detectives were called to the home in Melbourne’s northeast, they had rarely encountered such a neat crime scene. The girls , aged 4 and 3, lived with their mother and regularly stayed with their father, 35-year-old Charles Mihayo. The girls were adorable, with coffee-coloured skin and outrageous curls. The photos on the wall at Longmuir Road, Watsonia, reflected a father’s pride. Mr Mihayo separated from the girls’ mother a couple of years ago. But he lived at the same address as Margaret Mills, his former mother-in- law: Mr Mihayo in a two-bedroom unit at the rear of the property and Ms Mills in a unit at the front. Neighbours described Ms Mills as a lovely lady who had lived in their quiet residential street for as long as they had — 20 years and counting. They recalled how the girls liked to play in the front yard and pat the neighbourhood dogs.

February 2014 1 dead child + 1 dead man (child bashed & stabbed: father suicide by cop) Father had Long History of Family Violence, child pornography use, cannabis use and mental illness 3. Police believe attack was premeditated - TYABB TRAGEDYAge, The - Friday, February 14, 2014 John Silvester The interim police investigation into the murder of Tyabb boy LukeBatty indicates that his father Greg had a premeditated plan to kill his son and then commit "suicide by cop". While he lived apart from his son's mother, Rosie Batty , he was allowed to spend time with Luke at public events such as sporting matches, despite a history of violence and mental illness. On Wednesday, he left his car at home and took the train to training. He was seen bowling balls to Luke as junior cricket practice was winding down and the rest of the group were packing up. Police believe it was a plan to isolate him for a premeditated attack. Police say the father then struck his son's head savagely with a cricket bat. There were no initial indications of an argument or dispute before the attack. After Luke collapsed his father stabbed his son in the neck region. When uniformed police arrived they ordered the man to drop his knife. Independent witnesses, including ambulance officers, said the 54- year-old man screamed to police that he wanted them to kill him. Police sprayed the man with capsicum foam and tried to retreat to keep a distance between them and the knife- wielding offender. He continued to run at one officer who shot him.

4. January 2014 1 dead child + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) not detailed SAD END FOR TINY EEVA - Bodies found in beach dunes Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Author: GREG STOLZ JANE HANSEN MELANIE PETRINEC BRITTANY VONOW

IT was little Eeva Dorendahl- Hutchings’s last walk with her dad down the track to the beach. Her all-too-young life, and that of her father Greg Hutchings , ended there – in possibly violent circumstances – at the end of the isolated gravel and sand track on the picturesque Tweed Coast. An SES volunteer found the bodies yesterday, together under a sprawling pandanus tree, amid thick coastal scrub in the sand dunes of Pottsville Beach. The grim discovery about 10am NSW time brought a tragic end to a two-week search for the pair which extended across Australia and overseas. It was a disappearance mired in mystery and bitter family feuding. Police are treating the deaths as an apparent murder-suicide. The grandmother of four-year-old Eeva spoke last night of her shock when police visited the family yesterday morning and told them two bodies had been found.

June 2012 1 dead child (thrown off bridge)

5. David Fisher has been charged with murdering his son after leaving his Brisbane home and plunging from a bridge by:BROOKE BASKIN and JOSH ROBERTSON

From: The Daily Telegraph June 25, 2012 12:00AM HE was the baby boy his parents had been waiting for. But the short life of a seven-month-old Brisbane boy ended on Saturday night when his father allegedly took him for a walk - and plunged from a bridge. David Fisher, 38, has been charged with murdering his son after leaving his Brisbane home with the child in a pram and walking about 1km to a pedestrian bridge at the Logan River Parklands. He then fell from the bridge with the boy in his arms some time after 6pm. Fisher surfaced but the child was lost in the swirling water. Police will allege Fisher then walked back to his home to tell the boy's mother and four older sisters what had happened. "(He's) drowned. (He's) gone," he allegedly told his wife.

6. May 2012 2 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) not detailed

Slain kids 'part of NT custody battle'

13:48 AEDT Wed May 23 2012

Two young children murdered in Darwin by their father were the subject of a custody battle. Eight-year-old Aaliyaha Webb and her four-year-old half-brother Julian Chisholm, were found dead at a home in Darwin's northern suburbs on Tuesday morning. Michael Shane Chisholm, 23, who was the step-father to Aaliyaha and father of Julian, was also found dead in the house and police believe he killed the children before taking his own life. The children were the subject of a custody battle, the NT News reports.

7. February 2012 1 dead child + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) jump from bridge

Boy comforted dad who would kill him by: Kate Kyriacou and Alison Sandy From: Herald Sun February 22, 2012 12:00AM

Brad Lees was thrown from Brisbane's Story Bridge on Monday. Source: The Courier-Mail A LITTLE boy thrown to his death from a bridge had tried to comfort his dad after his mother left them. Friends and neighbours said a marriage break-up probably caused the murder- suicide of Jason Lees, 40, and his toddler Brad. A neighbour yesterday recounted the heartwrenching day when two-year-old Brad hugged his weeping dad on the back stairs of their Brisbane home. Marlene Stephens, who lives next door, said she thought Mr Lees' wife Danielle was no longer living with them when he made the fateful decision to kill his son and take his own life.

8. May 2007 1 dead child + 1 dead woman + 2 dead men (murder-suicide) stabbing & gassing KAYLA'S TRAGIC END - Brother sole survivor of Coast family's slaying Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Author: Greg Stolz, Alison Sandy Little Kayla's tragic end LITTLE Kayla Rogers celebrated her fifth birthday on the Gold Coast on Sunday. Last night she was the youngest victim of a horrific family dispute, found dead along with her father in a car in northern New South Wales. Earlier, her mum Tania Simpson was identified as one of the victims in a double murder in her upmarket Robina apartment. Kayla's 20-month-old brother, now an orphan, was saved because he spent Sunday night with his grandparents. The discovery of the bodies last night followed a major manhunt sparked when Ms Simpson and a man understood to be her partner were found dead by her father at the Robina unit about 8am. Police began searching for her estranged husband Paul Anthony Rogers after a tip-off that he was heading across the border with Kayla. Around 3.15pm, Queensland police issued a child abduction alert for Kayla. The alert was withdrawn last night when police discovered Rogers' vehicle on a remote road near Casino. It appeared he had gassed himself and his daughter.

9. November 19 2010 1 dead child (murder) stabbing

A man will face a Melbourne court today charged with stabbing his two-year-old daughter to death after picking her up for an access visit. Ramazan Acar, 23, of Meadow Heights in Melbourne's north, collected his daughter Yazmina from his ex-partner's house at Hallam, in Melbourne's southeast, on Wednesday evening.

10. April 18 2010 3 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) shooting

ONLY three days before he killed himself and his three children, Raj "Eddie" Osborne was interviewed by police. The triple killer was charged with a family-related offence and was due to face court in July... The children's mother said she had fled the relationship with Osborne, believing it was in her children's best interests. She said the dead man had threatened to kill her if she took custody of their children after they split."He was very violent," she said.

11. September 2 2009 2 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) car crash

The father who crashed his car into a tree, sparking a fireball that killed him and his two children, had a history of psychiatric illness, his ex-wife and mother of the children has said.On Sunday afternoon a Holden Commodore owned and driven by Glen Richard Dillon burst into flames after it left the road and crashed into a tree about 8km north of Jarrahdale Road.

12. March 5 2009 1 dead child + 1 dead woman (murder) stabbing

A VIETNAMESE man has appeared in court over the horrific fatal stabbing of his ex-wife and her toddler son at Angle Park last night. Minh Ly Tran, 49, surrendered to police after they were called to a house in Stuart St about 7pm, where they found the bodies of Trac Nguyen, 40, and Domenic Xuan Yu, 2.

13. January 9 2009 1 dead child (murder) thrown from bridge Mr Freeman has been charged with his daughter's murder on January 29 2009. Prosecutors allege the unemployed computer programmer threw Darcey off the bridge, while his two other children sat in his parked car, on the way to taking Darcey to her first day at St Joseph's School in Hawthorn. DARCEY Freeman's family says authorities and the justice system ignored their fears for her safety and failed to prevent her death.Her uncle Tim Barnes read a statement to reporters yesterday on behalf of the family of the four-year- old, which said their calls for help since Darcey's father, Arthur Phillip Freeman, split from her mother Peta two years ago went unheeded.

14. JUNE 2008 3 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) gassed

DOCS deserted murdered children Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) - Saturday, June 28, 2008 Author: GEMMA JONES

THE desperate plight of three children found murdered yesterday by their violent father was known to the Department of Community Services, which gave up on them. Just days earlier, the children's father Gary Bell, 44 was released by police on bail after bashing his wife, with the officers notifying the beleaguered department about Jack, 7, Maddie, 5 and Bon, aged just 18 months. Last night, hours after their tiny bodies and their dead father were found in a 4WD at the family's home at Pericoe on the Far South Coast, DOCS admitted it failed to reach the family and offered the excuse that staff had tried. It is believed the children and father had been dead for days.

15. APRIL 20 2008 1 dead child (murder- insanity) stabbing

A FATHER slit his toddler son's throat with a steak knife and threw him down a disused mineshaft because the boy was "the devil's helper", a court has heard. Aliya Zilic, 33, has been charged with the murder of Imran Zilic, 3, at Coober Pedy between April 20-24 last year.

16. December 31 2007 1 dead child (rape & murder) strangled

A Brisbane Mental Health Court judge has ruled the 40-year-old man, who cannot be named, was ''suffering unsoundness of mind'', when it is alleged he brutally bound, raped and killed his daughter at Bribie Island on New Year's Eve in 2007. But Queensland Health did not report the man to the Department of Child Safety after a psychiatrist found him to be mentally fit to leave hospital. This was despite him having sole custody of his four children aged between six and 10.

17. February 2006 1 dead child, 1 dead woman, 1 dead man: arson

Man given life sentence for fire deaths Posted Wed 12 Dec 2007, 4:43pm AEDT A 40-year-old Brisbane man has been jailed for life for the murder of his former partner, their infant son and another man.Errol Graham Hayes was found guilty last week by a Supreme Court jury in Brisbane of setting fire to the Annerley home of 32-year-old Theresa Marchetti, her 18-month-old infant son, Joshua, and her partner 39-year-old Mark Christensen in February last year. All three died of smoke inhalation. During his trial the court heard Hayes and Ms Marchetti had a volatile relationship and that prior to the blaze, he had threatened to burn her alive. In ordering a non-parole period of 24-and-a-half years, Justice Kenneth Mackenzie told Hayes the victims must have had a terrifying death as they would have known they were trapped by the fire.

18. May 2005 3 dead children (murder) drowning Life sentence for dad who drowned his sons Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Saturday, October 16, 2010 Author: Daniel Fogarty A FATHER has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his three sons by driving his car into a dam on Father's Day. Robert Farquharson , 41, was ordered to serve a non-parole period of 33 years in prison for the murders of Jai, 10, Tyler, 7 and Bailey, 2, on September 4, 2005. It is the second time Farquharson has been handed a life sentence for the crime. In 2007, he was sentenced to life without parole for the murders, but he won an appeal last year and was granted a retrial. In July, a Victorian Supreme Court jury found him guilty of murdering the boys. Both trials were told that Farquharson was returning home from a Father's Day access visit when he drove his car off the Princes Highway and into the dam near Winchelsea in Victoria's south-west.

19. July 2004 2 dead children + 1 dead woman + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) suffocation, stabbing, shooting

Why? Two beautiful children killed by their own father - Hunter Valley murder-suicide prompts search for answers Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, Australia) - Wednesday, July 14, 2004 Author: DAN PROUDMAN

THERE were no floral tributes. Nothing to indicate the horror which occurred inside a typical weatherboard home in a typical Hunter Valley village. East Gresford people are much more practical than that. They would rather visit, bring food and offer a shoulder to cry on. The village has been forced into the realisation that one of their own was capable of murdering his estranged wife and two young children before taking his own life. Preliminary autopsies yesterday revealed that MichaelRichardson , 32, probably smothered his three-year-old son Luke and daughter Grace, 20 months, after stabbing to death his wife, Roxanne, 30, on Sunday night. After placing the trio on a bed inside the Durham Rd home, Richardson got in and shot himself with a .223 calibre rifle.

20. April 2004 2 dead children + 1 dead woman + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) fire. WAS IT MURDER? Sister reveals death threats before blaze

Cairns Post, The (Australia) - Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Author: Lloyd Jones of AAP

RELATIVES of a family of four killed when an explosion and fire tore through a farmhouse near Tully fear they were victims of a murder-suicide by a depressed father. JohnFrazer , 52, his wife Janelle, 43, and their daughters Sarah, 18, and Julia, nine, died early on Easter Sunday in their old fibro cottage on their cane farm at Feluga, about 8km north of Tully. Mrs Frazer 's sister Rhyl Clementson yesterday said Mr Frazer had recently made threats on his own life and of his family's after becoming depressed. Mrs Frazer had spoken to a police officer in Tully about her husband's threats and had removed ammunition from the house, Mrs Clementson said. Mrs Frazer also told Mrs Clementson of the threats in the past two weeks and had been shocked by her husband's distressed state. " John had woken Janelle in the middle of the night very distressed and told her exactly what he was thinking and as a result of that Janelle took him to the family doctor the next day," Mrs Clementson said. "She was absolutely in shock, devastated . . . and set about talking to a number of people including getting a couple of safe houses available, should she need them," Mrs Clementson said. "She feared for her life and for her children's lives," she told The Cairns Post yesterday.

21. April 2004 2 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) suffocation Killer dad planned 'long sleep' with babies Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Author: Paula Doneman, Tanya Moore and Erica Thompson ON Friday, Jayson Dalton learnt he would not be the primary carer of his two young children . Two days after the Family Court order, he murdered his children before killing himself. The former One Nation candidate is believed to have suffocated his 19-month-old daughter Jessie and her 13-week-old brother Patrick in their former family home at Kelvin Grove in Brisbane on Sunday before suffocating himself with a plastic bag. Mr Dalton , 32, who had temporary custody of his children before Friday, was meant to hand over the children at Southport at 4pm on Sunday but failed to show. His mother-in-law Julie Wherritt and his estranged wife Dionne Dalton began a desperate ring-around on Sunday afternoon in a bid to locate him. Mr Dalton had told his father on Sunday that he and his babies were going to have ``a long sleep'' together. In the past few weeks he had also threatened to harm his family and hoped to ``end it all''.

22. September 2003 2 dead children + 1 dead man (murder) stabbing `Hold your babies tight. Love them just a little more.' Words of a mother robbed of her children Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia) - Friday, September 19, 2003 Author: Les Kennedy Ingrid Poulson wants the parents of Australia to cherish their children. "Hold your babies tight. Love them just a little more. They deserve it." Three days after her estranged partner stabbed their two young children to death, Ms Poulson went public yesterday with this message, delivered by her sister Rebecca at Penrith police station. IngridPoulson 's children, she said, were two of the three stars in her life: four-year-old daughter Marilyn and 23- month-old son Sebastian. She called them "Marli" and "Bas". Her third star was her 60-year- old father, Peter, who died trying to stop her de facto husband, Phithak Kongson, from stabbing the children at Mr Poulson 's semi-rural home at Wilberforce on Monday.

23. September 2001 3 dead children (murder) Suffocation `Perfect dad' gets life for killing three children Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia) - Thursday, December 5, 2002 Author: Lee Glendinning Craig Andrew Merritt, a "perfect, doting father", was yesterday sentenced to life in prison for smothering his three children to death on Father's Day. He is believed to be the first person in Australia jailed for natural life for infanticide. The 31-year-old, who had no history of mental illness, pleaded guilty to the suffocation murders of six-year-old Jackson Merritt, TaylahPringle , 11 months and Mikaylah Green, 11 weeks, at their grandmother's Cabramatta home in September last year.

24. August 2001 3 dead children (murder) Drugged & drowned Father drugged, drowned three children, court told Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia) - Tuesday, October 21, 2003 Author: Lee Glendinning When Steven Fraser picked up his children from his estranged wife he told them to kiss their mother goodbye. It was something he had never done in any access visit. Over the next two days Fraser killed all three of his children in his Caringbah home, the NSW Supreme Court was told yesterday. Late on Saturday night of August 20, 2001, he gave his sons, five-year-old Ryan and four-year-old Jarrod , doses of Mogadon before drowning them, the court was told. He placed Ryan on a mattress in the lounge room, and wrote on his face in felt-tip pen, "I love you Ryan, RIP xo". He left Jarrod in the main bedroom, with a similar message on his face. Fraser spent the next day with his seven-year-old daughter, Ashley, and then killed her, the court was told. She struggled violently in the bathtub, the court heard, and Fraser hit her on the back of the neck to subdue her. He laid her on a bed and wrote on the wall, "There's no place like home."

25. July 1999 4 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) Gassed KILLER DAD WAS SET TO FACE STABBING TRIAL Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Monday, July 26, 1999

Author: MARK RUSSELL, QNP

THE father who killed his four children in a murder-suicide was facing trial for attempted murder. Mark Andrew Heath , 31, had been accused of stabbing a relative and was due to stand trial in September. It was alleged Heath believed the relative had interfered with one of his sons. Police yesterday issued a statement from Acting Deputy Commissioner Bob Kucera confirming Heath had been on remand for charges due to be heard in the WA District Court. ``These charges relate to an incident that occurred in 1998,'' Mr Kucera said in the statement. ``The circumstances surrounding the death of Heath and his children , including details of the previously mentioned charges, are now subject to a coronial inquiry, and as such our ability to comment further on this matter is limited.'' The bodies of Heath and his children , Sarah, 8, Holly, 6, Jak, 4, and Kaleb, 2, and the family's dog, Scully, were found in a Lada Niva 4WD with a hose pipe connected to the exhaust about 9am on Saturday.

26. October 1998 3 dead children + 1 dead man (murder-suicide) Gassed Mum tells of predicting her kids' murder Courier Mail, The (Brisbane, Australia) - Wednesday, May 17, 2000 Author: Mark Russell ELISE Debaugy clutched a tissue in shaking hands yesterday as she told of the moment she knew her estranged husband was going to kill her three children. Ms Debaugy said Ronald Jonker glared at her and called her a bitch after the Family Court had ordered him to return the children to her. ``It was just the look on his face, like I'd never seen ever,'' she told the Perth Coroners Court yesterday.

``I walked straight up to my lawyer and told her, `He's going to kill my kids'.'' Ms Debaugy said her lawyer, Ciara Tyson, told her to have faith in the legal system. Jonker, 33, and the children, David, 7, Aaron , 5, and Ashlee, 17 months, were found gassed to death three days later in Jonker's car on a dirt track near Lancelin, north of Perth, on October 22, 1998. (David was Ms Debaugy 's son from another relationship.)

 (23) 1997 Peter May killed his 3 children Lisa age 11, Andrew age 8, and Natalie age 7 (killed on contact visit). (Before digital newspapers so not included in statistics)

Mothers killing children in context of separation: (Excludes child deaths where mothers and their partners are jointly charged – eg Keisha Abrahams) 6 events between 1999 and February 2014 resulting in the deaths of 16 people: 12 children, 3 women and 1 man. All the dead women were perpetrators who suicided. The forms of killing used were: 1 gassing 1 shooting 1 strangulation 1 bashing 1 drowning 1 not detailed

1. July 2009 1 dead child (murder) drowning REVENGE KILLING - Toddler's murder was payback: court claim Woman to face trial over child drowning Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, Australia) - Thursday, September 30, 2010 Author: BREE FULLER

A GWYNNEVILLE woman drowned her toddler in a bathtub to exact revenge on the child 's father, the Crown will allege at an upcoming Supreme Court trial. Text messages and typed documents found on the accused woman's computer allegedly detailed the couple's rocky relationship and may have suggested a premeditated plan, according to evidence before the court. The Crown alleges that eight days before the toddler's death, the woman sent messages to the child 's father telling him "its the last wkend u will be happy" (sic). Another message on the same day told the man that he could have saved them, but didn't. Police also found written documents on the woman’s computer which allegedly revealed her plan to kill her 17-month-old toddler and take her own life. In one letter to the child’s father, the woman asked to have a joint funeral with the child and made a list of songs she wanted played, according to evidence tendered to court. In a letter to her mother, she apologised for her actions and said she understood why people felt the need to take their children’s lives. Despite the alleged admissions the woman told police the child had drowned accidentally while she was running a bath for her on July 21 last year. Instead of calling emergency services, the woman attempted CPR on the toddler before dressing her in her christening dress and putting her lifeless body to bed, the police fact sheet stated. In the days after the toddler’s death the woman allegedly tried to commit suicide a number of times, first taking a cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs before trying to cut her wrists with a knife. After three attempts, the woman then travelled to The Gap in Sydney, where she planned to jump off a cliff. Unable to do so, she called the child’s father and allegedly told him of the toddler’s death before they drove to her Wollongong unit. The police were notified and the woman was subsequently arrested after a three-week investigation. Yesterday the woman appeared before Magistrate Michael Stoddart in Wollongong Local Court charged with murder . She was committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court in Sydney and will be expected to enter a formal plea when she appears for arraignment on November 5.

2. October 2007 1 dead child (murder) bashed Loathing for a boy who only wanted love Australian, The (Australia) - Thursday, December 10, 2009

Author: Angus Hohenboken

DEANShillingsworth was entitled to the ``love, protection and nurture of his mother'', but in his life of just two years and eight months he would never know it. Instead he would experience only cruelty, hunger, hatred and fear. His mother, Rachel Pfitzner, 27, called him `àn arsehole'' and `à little bastard''. She beat him for wetting his pants and for eating food scraps when he was hungry. She loathed him because he reminded her of his father, and although Dean wanted nothing more than love and affection, he would never get it. If he hugged her, he was punished for being too clingy. She would lock him out of the house in the cold and he would cry: ``Mummy, Mummy, I'm sorry.'' Dean died in the most horrific of circumstances on October 11, 2007, somehow asphyxiated by his enraged mother, stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into a western Sydney duck pond. His body surfaced six days later, found by local schoolchildren. The murder shocked the community and sparked widespread outrage because it took place under the nose of child protection authorities. The troubled family had a long history with the Department of Community Services. Yesterday, judge Robert Hulme sentenced Pfitzner to more than 25 years' jail for her son's murder, to which she had pleaded guilty. In his judgment, he laid bare the horror of the killing and detailed how a mother and a child protection system had failed the little boy. `` Dean was entitled to love, protection and nurture, but instead she took away his very life,'' Justice Hulme told the Supreme Court. `Ì am satisfied that she came to loathe Dean because he reminded her of his father, towards whom she held ambivalent feelings.'' He accepted that Pfitzner had ``severe borderline personality disorder'', but didn't accept that the mental condition lessened her culpability. The judge could not say precisely how she killed her son, but accepted that the killing was not planned.

3. September 2005 2 dead children (murder) strangulation

JUSTICE FOR MY BOYS - GRIEVING DAD LASHES EVIL MUM WHO KILLED THEIR SONS

Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia) - Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Author: Katie Bice

A GRIEVING father cried with relief and joy yesterday after a jury found his ex-wife guilty of murdering his two little boys. It was the second time David Fitchett had been put through the agony of a trial. DonnaFitchett , 51, was convicted of killing Thomas, 11, and Matthew, 9. Mr Fitchett said outside court two juries had now got it right. ``Another 12 people saw through the absolute shallow, shallow, pathetic defence she put up,'' he said. ``She is a manipulative, cunning, street-smart woman and she knew all along what she was doing was wrong.'' But Mr Fitchett cannot forgive the system that allowed his ex-wife to drag out his pain. She was convicted and jailed for 18 years but granted a retrial last year on a technicality. ``The law is a joke. The law is an ass,'' Mr Fitchett said. ``One judge got one sentence wrong, so we had to go to a retrial.'' Asked if he had a message for his ex-wife, Mr Fitchett replied: ``You don't want to hear it. You don't want to know about it.'' He walked from court flanked by supporters who cheered: ``For the boys!'' DonnaFitchett drugged and smothered or strangled her sons at their Balwyn North home in September 2005. The Supreme Court jury of eight women and four men returned their verdict after just four hours. They rejected a claim the mother was mentally impaired and so depressed she thought killing the boys was her ``greatest act of love''. The court heard Fitchett killed her boys after deciding her marriage was intolerable and over. She told her husband to enjoy the Father's Day weekend because it ``would be their last as a family''. The qualified nurse gave her sons a cocktail of prescription drugs and put them to bed. Fitchett used a sock to strangle Thomas and then placed a pillow over the face of Matthew as he struggled. She then took some pills herself and wrote a letter to her husband. But before Fitchett could take her own life Mr Fitchett arrived home.

4. March 2005 2 dead children +1 dead man+ 1 dead woman (murder-suicide) shooting

MUM KILLS HER FAMILY Advertiser, The (Adelaide, Australia) - Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Author: JUSTIN VALLEJO in Sydney

A TROUBLED relationship has spiralled into a tragic triple murder-suicide after a mother shot dead her husband and two infant children before turning the rifle on herself. In a sequel to years of marital problems including infidelity and domestic violence, Sally Winter, 32, ended the ``fiery relationship'' by shooting her husband Stephen, 32, and their children Jake, 4, and Kasey, 3, dead in their home in the Hunter Valley. She then used her husband's rifle, which he kept to go pig shooting with friends, to kill herself.

5. August 2002 1 dead child + 1 dead woman (Murder-suicide) not detailed Battle for boy ends in double tragedy Age, The (Melbourne, Australia) - Saturday, August 3, 2002 Author: Julie Szego, Social Affairs Reporter

The lesbian mother at the centre of a bitter Family Court battle with a gay sperm donor was found dead in her Melbourne home on Thursday, along with her two-year old son, in an apparent murder -suicide. The mother, 40, lived with her lesbian co-parent, who had fought alongside her this year to restrict the father's contact with the child . In April the donor father won the right to have regular contact visits with his son after a Family Court judge ruled that it was in the child 's best interests. Since the trial, the co-parent had played the role of intermediary for the visits. It is believed the father was enjoying a healthy relationship with the toddler. It is also believed the birth mother had received psychiatric treatment since the court case.

6. July 1999 5 dead children + 1 dead woman (murder-suicide) gassing What drove mum to murder? Weekend Australian (Australia) - Saturday, July 10, 1999 Author: MONICA VIDENIEKS

There are many clues but no answer in the life of BarbaraWyrzykowski to why she killed her five children and herself. Monica Videnieks reports. TRAVIS Goodall had made a promise to his eldest son, Mark. When he turned 8, Mark could begin boxing lessons with the family's friend and next-door neighbour, Brendan Foley. But as Mark celebrated his eighth birthday last Saturday, and looked forward to that long-awaited boxing class, his mother, BarbaraWyrzykowski , had other things on her mind. It was 11am on an unusually warm Perth winter's day when Wyrzykowski wrote a note to Goodall, her long-term partner, and bundled Mark, his three younger sisters and brother into the family's Toyota Tarago van, and went for a drive. They ended up in the Karragullen State forest, 50km south-east of Perth. What happened next has given Wyrzykowski , a mother of five at just 25, the presumed title of Australia's worst domestic murderer. At 4.10pm, a young trail bike rider stumbled across the family's white van, parked on an isolated track. The van was not running, but the young rider feared the worst when he spotted a plastic hose running from the car's exhaust, through a window. Frantically, he pulled the hose from the exhaust -- but it was too late. Inside, Mark, five-year-old twins Sarah and Luke, Jessie, aged 4, Jayde, 22 months, and their mum, BarbaraWyrzykowski , were dead. Ambulance officers rushed to the scene, arriving just nine minutes after the distraught man called for help on his mobile phone. Once there, they discovered the fair- haired family slumped on the fake-fur car-seat covers. They also found a pile of clothes, a half-eaten meal and a baby seat in the seven-seat vehicle. Less than an hour later, Mr Goodall, the children's father, learned of his family's demise as he watched the grisly story unfold on the television news that night and recognised his de facto's van. It's been a week since the mother and children were discovered and details about why the tragedy happened remain unknown. Aside from their immediate family, few people seem to have been close enough to the woman and her ill-fated children to want to say goodbye. The first death notices in the local newspaper only appeared yesterday. None were from the family. No one knows for certain what drove the young mother to kill herself and her children, although it seems her problems began as a teenager, after her mother, Mary, died. Wyrzykowski 's Polish immigrant father, Januz, 60, said that soon after her mother's death, Barbara , desperate for a mother figure, had befriended the mother of Mr Goodall, the boy next door. Defying her father, Wyrzykowski moved next door to live with Mr Goodall and, soon after, she went to police claiming her father had molested her as a child. ``I wanted to kill myself when I heard about it and I went down to the police station to find out about these allegations. I never touched Barbara or any of my children in that way,'' Mr Wyrzykowski said. He also revealed that he was molested as a child in Poland.

Feb 2012?? The tragedy comes five months after mentally-ill Brisbane mother Kim Patterson took her own life at the same location, after killing her daughter Sidonie Thompson, 14, and with her son in the family car nearby.