Australia : At least seven children killed in mass stabbing in Cairns
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
Some people will get their hands on guns regardless, but tougher gun laws will obviously make it much more difficult for this to happen. With lax gun laws every moron can walk around with a firearm and it'll be madness.
You'll never know when a massacre will happen but you'll always be expecting it.
Australian mother charged with murder of eight children
Jane Wardell and Morag MacKinnon, Reuters
First posted: Sunday, December 21, 2014 12:53 AM EST | Updated: Sunday, December 21, 2014 01:01 AM EST
SYDNEY - An Australian mother has been charged with the murder of eight children, seven of them hers, two days after their bodies were found in a home in the city of Cairns.
Police said the 37-year-old woman was charged in a bedside hearing at a Cairns hospital, where she is recovering from stab wounds, with the murder of four girls and four boys, aged from 18 months to 15 years.
"It is simply eight counts of murder, one for each victim," Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters.
Asnicar, who said the five fathers of the children had been informed, said police were investigating whether drug use was involved in the tragedy.
"I want to make clear I'm not dismissing it," he said. "I'm saying that I can't discuss whether it's true or not."
Police have taken more than 100 witness statements and autopsies of the children, the eighth of whom was a niece of the charged woman, are expected to be completed later on Sunday, Asnicar said.
The killing of the children, whose bodies were discovered on Friday, shocked a nation already reeling from the siege and killing of two hostages at cafe in the city of Sydney earlier in the week.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the events in Cairns "heartbreaking" and acknowledged the "trying days" for Australia.
As services and memorials continued for the victims of the Sydney siege over the weekend, relatives and friends of the children gathered at a makeshift shrine of flowers near their home in the Cairns suburb of Manoora.
Police did not identify the charged woman, citing the need to protect the identity of the children, a normal procedure in Australian criminal cases.
Police also noted that it was culturally insensitive and a breach of cultural protocols of the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community, to which the family belongs, to release the names and photos of the dead children.
Asnicar said police would be releasing less information about the case from now on as the charging of the mother meant it was now before the courts.
"It's going to be a long hard road" to the bring the case to a conclusion, he said.
The Cairns family were members of the Torres Strait Islander community, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community due to their origins on islands off the tropical Queensland coast.
A policeman guards the scene of a stabbing attack at a home in Cairns, northern Queensland, December 19, 2014. Eight children have been killed and a woman who was mother to seven of them was injured in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said on Friday, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing. REUTERS/Stringer
Australian mother charged with murder of eight children | World | News | Toronto
Jane Wardell and Morag MacKinnon, Reuters
First posted: Sunday, December 21, 2014 12:53 AM EST | Updated: Sunday, December 21, 2014 01:01 AM EST
SYDNEY - An Australian mother has been charged with the murder of eight children, seven of them hers, two days after their bodies were found in a home in the city of Cairns.
Police said the 37-year-old woman was charged in a bedside hearing at a Cairns hospital, where she is recovering from stab wounds, with the murder of four girls and four boys, aged from 18 months to 15 years.
"It is simply eight counts of murder, one for each victim," Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar told reporters.
Asnicar, who said the five fathers of the children had been informed, said police were investigating whether drug use was involved in the tragedy.
"I want to make clear I'm not dismissing it," he said. "I'm saying that I can't discuss whether it's true or not."
Police have taken more than 100 witness statements and autopsies of the children, the eighth of whom was a niece of the charged woman, are expected to be completed later on Sunday, Asnicar said.
The killing of the children, whose bodies were discovered on Friday, shocked a nation already reeling from the siege and killing of two hostages at cafe in the city of Sydney earlier in the week.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the events in Cairns "heartbreaking" and acknowledged the "trying days" for Australia.
As services and memorials continued for the victims of the Sydney siege over the weekend, relatives and friends of the children gathered at a makeshift shrine of flowers near their home in the Cairns suburb of Manoora.
Police did not identify the charged woman, citing the need to protect the identity of the children, a normal procedure in Australian criminal cases.
Police also noted that it was culturally insensitive and a breach of cultural protocols of the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community, to which the family belongs, to release the names and photos of the dead children.
Asnicar said police would be releasing less information about the case from now on as the charging of the mother meant it was now before the courts.
"It's going to be a long hard road" to the bring the case to a conclusion, he said.
The Cairns family were members of the Torres Strait Islander community, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community due to their origins on islands off the tropical Queensland coast.
A policeman guards the scene of a stabbing attack at a home in Cairns, northern Queensland, December 19, 2014. Eight children have been killed and a woman who was mother to seven of them was injured in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said on Friday, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing. REUTERS/Stringer
Australian mother charged with murder of eight children | World | News | Toronto
No it isn't rich. I've heard of Australia. Britons know much more about Australia than they do about Canada, what with all the popular Aussie TV shows, like "Neighbours" and "Home and Away" and "Prisoner Cell Block H" and "The Doctor Blake Mysteries" (I can't think of any Canadian shows on British telly), and the huge sporting rivalry we have with them, especially in cricket and both codes of rugby. Canada features little on the British radar, but Australia is well-known here.
Which is what they are, just as Canada and America are, despite what the PC Brigade say. I'm only saying it as it is.
Australian house where eight children killed to be demolished
Jane Wardell, Reuters
First posted: Monday, December 22, 2014 12:40 AM EST | Updated: Monday, December 22, 2014 12:45 AM EST
SYDNEY - The house where an Australian mother allegedly killed eight children, most of them her own, will likely be demolished in keeping with indigenous culture to make way for a memorial, a government official said on Monday.
The fate of the house in the tropical northern city of Cairns was being discussed while a judge denied a request to transfer the murder case against 37-year-old Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday to Queensland state's Mental Health Court.
Thaiday is the mother of the four boys and three of the girls who were slain. The eighth child was her niece.
The Queensland government agreed to the demolition of the home because of the horrific nature of the killings and in keeping with indigenous cultural beliefs, Queensland MP Gavin King said.
"After extensive consultation we will remove the house behind me," King said as he spoke to the media in a park where the dead children used to play.
King said the government would liaise with the community on what form a memorial would take.
Thaiday was charged on Sunday with eight counts of murder over the deaths of the children, aged between two and 14 years.
Magistrate Alan Comans declined a request from Thaiday's lawyer, Steven MacFarlane, to have the case moved to the Mental Health Court. Comans said during a brief hearing at the Cairns Magistrates Court on Monday it was too soon for such a request.
No plea was entered at the hearing on behalf of Thaiday, who remains under police guard in hospital. She is being treated for stab wounds.
MacFarlane said he was not sure how long his client would remain in hospital, where she is also awaiting psychiatric assessment.
Police have asked that media abide by the cultural protocols of the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community, to which the family belongs, and withhold the names and photos of the dead children.
Torres Strait Islanders, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community, believe the spirit of a dead person must be sent along its journey or it might stay and disturb remaining family members.
The spirit is helped on this journey by a refusal to speak the deceased's name for a long period.
Detectives work at the scene of a stabbing attack at a home in Cairns, northern Queensland, December 19, 2014. Eight children have been killed and a woman who was mother to seven of them was injured in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said on Friday, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing. REUTERS/Stringer
Australian house where eight children killed to be demolished | World | News | T
Jane Wardell, Reuters
First posted: Monday, December 22, 2014 12:40 AM EST | Updated: Monday, December 22, 2014 12:45 AM EST
SYDNEY - The house where an Australian mother allegedly killed eight children, most of them her own, will likely be demolished in keeping with indigenous culture to make way for a memorial, a government official said on Monday.
The fate of the house in the tropical northern city of Cairns was being discussed while a judge denied a request to transfer the murder case against 37-year-old Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday to Queensland state's Mental Health Court.
Thaiday is the mother of the four boys and three of the girls who were slain. The eighth child was her niece.
The Queensland government agreed to the demolition of the home because of the horrific nature of the killings and in keeping with indigenous cultural beliefs, Queensland MP Gavin King said.
"After extensive consultation we will remove the house behind me," King said as he spoke to the media in a park where the dead children used to play.
King said the government would liaise with the community on what form a memorial would take.
Thaiday was charged on Sunday with eight counts of murder over the deaths of the children, aged between two and 14 years.
Magistrate Alan Comans declined a request from Thaiday's lawyer, Steven MacFarlane, to have the case moved to the Mental Health Court. Comans said during a brief hearing at the Cairns Magistrates Court on Monday it was too soon for such a request.
No plea was entered at the hearing on behalf of Thaiday, who remains under police guard in hospital. She is being treated for stab wounds.
MacFarlane said he was not sure how long his client would remain in hospital, where she is also awaiting psychiatric assessment.
Police have asked that media abide by the cultural protocols of the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community, to which the family belongs, and withhold the names and photos of the dead children.
Torres Strait Islanders, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community, believe the spirit of a dead person must be sent along its journey or it might stay and disturb remaining family members.
The spirit is helped on this journey by a refusal to speak the deceased's name for a long period.
Detectives work at the scene of a stabbing attack at a home in Cairns, northern Queensland, December 19, 2014. Eight children have been killed and a woman who was mother to seven of them was injured in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said on Friday, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing. REUTERS/Stringer
Australian house where eight children killed to be demolished | World | News | T