Killer mom will not stand trial for murders
Print Edition
AN Australian mother who killed seven of her children and a niece in a brutal murder will not stand trial after being deemed of “unsound mind.”
The bodies of the youngsters, aged between two and 14, were found stabbed to death at a home in the northern city of Cairns in December 2014.
Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, also known as Mersane Warria, was charged with murdering the four girls and four boys after being found by police at the scene of the crime with 35 self-inflicted stab wounds.
In a ruling reached last month, but only made public yesterday, the Queensland Mental Health Court found she could not be held criminally responsible as she had suffered a psychotic episode from an undiagnosed mental condition.
“At the time of the killing, Mrs Thaiday was suffering from a mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, and that she had no capacity to know what she was doing was wrong,” said the court findings of her psychiatrist.
“In fact, to her way of thinking at that time, what she was doing was the best thing she could do for her children, she was trying to save them.”
Under Queensland state law if a person is found to be of unsound mind at the time of an offense, criminal proceedings against them are discontinued and considered unfit for trial.
Thaiday, 40, is being held in a high-security mental health institute. It is unclear if she will ever be released.
Court records revealed her condition had been getting worse in the lead up to the killings and she believed there were evil spirits in her home.
The house where the killings took place was demolished in 2015 and a memorial to slain children is in its place.
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