Murder accused mum received death threats before lake killings, court told
THE mum who allegedly murdered her three youngest children by driving into a lake was shunned by her community, a court has heard.
A MELBOURNE mother received death threats and was shunned by her community before she allegedly murdered her three youngest children by driving into a lake, a court has heard.
Akon Guode’s eldest daughter, Akoi Chabiet, said her mother became scared to go out and gossip was going around the Sudanese community.
Prosecutors say Guode began an affair with her dead husband’s cousin Joseph Manyang after she immigrated to Australia from Sudan in 2006.
Four of her seven children were fathered by Mr Manyang, including the three who died.
Ms Chabiet says Mr Manyang’s wife began threatening her mother after the birth of her twin siblings in 2010.
She says Mr Manyang’s wife once showed up at the family home and banged on the door, calling Guode a “sl*t” and “b***h”.
“She was saying that she’s going to burn our house and that she’s going to kill our mother,” Ms Chabiet told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Guode’s one-year-old son, Bol, and four-year-old twins, Hanger, and her brother Madit, were killed when her car plunged into Lake Gladman in April last year.
Guode and her six-year-old daughter Alual survived after being pulled from the water.
The 37-year-old has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder over the incident in Wyndham Vale. That day, there was a rumour circulating that Mr Manyang was moving back with his wife, according to prosecution documents previously released to media.
Ms Chabiet said there was nothing unusual about the day her siblings died.
She spoke to her mother about 3pm and was told they would be back soon.
“Nothing was odd or out of character for Mum,” Ms Chabiet said in a statement.
Guode’s aunt, Abook Kon, spoke to her niece the day before the drownings, because Guode was planning a move to Morwell, where Ms Kon lived.
Guode planned to meet her aunt on the day of the fatal crash and was excited about moving, Ms Kon said in a statement.
Ms Kon also told the court Guode was prone to headaches and dizziness, which had affected her driving in the year before the incident.
On one occasion, Guode had trouble driving home from shopping because she felt so unwell, Ms Kon said.
“It was very hard for her to drive all the way home,” she told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Guode told her aunt she was seeing a doctor and had been prescribed medication for the headaches.
She also believed people in the Sudanese community were gossiping about her, the court heard.
Ms Kon said Guode told her: “People are talking about me” and “Every time I have a baby, people are talking”.
The committal hearing, which is expected to last up to four weeks, will hear from the children’s father Mr Manyang today.