Cairns mother arrested after eight children 'stabbed to death'
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 20 December, 2014, 10:17pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 December, 2014, 1:18am
Agence France-Presse in Cairns
Resident Sam O'Grady mourns the eight children after the mother of almost all of the youngsters was arrested on suspicion of murder. Photo: EPA
Australian police yesterday arrested the mother of all but one of eight children apparently stabbed to death in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.
Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children, the youngest of whom was a toddler and the oldest a teenager, but said knives were found at the house where the bodies were.
"The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital," detective inspector Bruno Asnicar said.
Flowers and teddy bears were laid near the crime scene as a makeshift memorial was established, and church services were held overnight in Cairns, where police said they were working closely with the Torres Strait Islander community to which the family belonged. Police have confirmed the dead as four girls - aged two, 11, 12 and 14 - and four boys aged five, six, eight and nine, but said they would not name the family for cultural reasons. In some indigenous cultures it is considered disrespectful to say a deceased person's name.
The woman arrested is the mother of the seven younger children and the aunt of the 14-year-old girl. She has not been charged, but police said she was assisting with their inquiries.
"She's stable and being looked after," Asnicar said, adding that the woman, who has stab wounds to her upper body, was "awake ... lucid and speaking". He could not say whether her wounds were self-inflicted.
The dead children were reportedly discovered by the mother's 20-year-old son when he arrived at the house in the suburb of Manoora on Friday morning.
"This is just an ordinary neighbourhood," Asnicar said. "This is just something that has caught everybody by surprise."
Torres Shire Council Mayor Pedro Stephen said the entire region was grieving.
"It's like a bomb has gone off," he said. "Everyone is in shock."
