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A 47-year-old mother has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing her three children.
The children, aged 10, 13, and 16, are in stable condition at Westmead Hospital.
Police believe the incident was an attempted murder-suicide and are treating it as a mental health episode.
The mother who allegedly stabbed her children in a shocking rampage in Sydney has been charged.
NSW police charged the 47-year-old mother with three counts of wound with attempt to murder for the alleged domestic violence incident that has shaken the city.
The fatherof the three children, aged 10, 13 and 16, was woken up by screams before desperately trying to save them as their mother carried out the alleged knife attack in their family home, police said.
“Emergency services called to a home ... about 5.20am found a 10-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl, a 16-year-old girl and a 47-year-old woman suffering stab wounds,” NSW police said on Monday evening.
“They were treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics and taken to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Westmead Hospital where they remain in a stable condition.”
Detective Superintendent Naomi Moore said police believed the three children and their father were in their bedrooms – and possibly asleep – at the time of the alleged attack.
She said police suspected it was an attempted murder-suicide and that a household knife had been seized.
“Waking up to what I believe to be a number of screams or yells, [the father] has ... from what I am told, secured the weapon and he’s contacted police,” Superintendent Moore said.
“It’s tragic, it’s sad – it’s certainly not something that my staff or I want to wake up to on a Monday morning.”
“She has been refused bail to appear via a bedside hearing in Parramatta Local Court tomorrow,” police said.
Police believe the three children and their father were in their bedrooms – and possibly asleep – at the time of the alleged attack. Photo / File
Moore said the house seemed to belong to a “relatively normal family” and there had been no previous reports of domestic violence.
She alleged the woman’s behaviour was described as “a bit erratic” in the lead-up to the alleged stabbing.
“As sad as it is, we haven’t dealt with this family before and I only wish that maybe we had,” Moore said.
“The only thing I can be grateful for is those children should make a full physical recovery – in terms of psychological recovery, I guess time will tell.”
The mother is under arrest and police guard as she and her three children continue receiving treatment in hospital.
Police were seen working at the home throughout the day, removing brown bags of evidence, and a wheelchair.
At 2.35pm, a trio of investigators were seen conducting a search of the family car.
The investigators, most of who were in plain clothes, wore blue plastic gloves.
Shortly after, detectives extracted a black suitcase and several brown evidence bags from the home, before a uniformed officer removed the police tape surrounding the premises.
A uniformed officer said the home was no longer an active crime scene.
A neighbour in the quiet street told NewsWire the dad had recently lost his job and there had been tension in the family.
The neighbour, who has lived opposite the family home for 55 years, said: “The husband lost his job a couple of weeks ago, there’s been tension in the family.
“I often picked up parcels for them. They are lovely people, a lovely young couple.”
Other neighbours said one of their children was in a wheelchair.
“They’re nice folks really, I know one of the children is in a wheelchair. The kids are roughly teenage. I’ve got a son of my own, he’s 15,” a neighbour said.
“They’re a peaceful family, I mean they come around at Christmas and we exchange gifts. They keep to themselves generally, they wouldn’t have lots of people come over.”
Police on Monday said they believed the woman’s injuries were self-inflicted and the incident was being treated as a mental health episode.
The woman and children were treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to Westmead Hospital in stable condition.
