A mother who killed three of her children and tried to kill a fourth by driving the family car into a Melbourne lake has been jailed for at least 20 years.
Akon Guode, 37, was sentenced to a maximum of 26 years and six months with a non-parole period of 20 years over the deaths of her three children and attempted murder of a fourth child.
The Sudanese refugee wailed in court as Justice Lex Lasry outlined the difficult personal circumstances Guode had experienced in the years before she killed her one-year-old son Bol, and four-year-old twins Hanger and Madi, by driving her 4WD into a Wyndham Vale lake on April 8, 2015.
"People don't understand why you did what you did," the Victorian Supreme Court judge said.
"In my opinion your actions were the product of extreme desperation."