Parole denied to a Perth father who murdered his whole family

Perth father Anthony Harvey spent his first night behind bars for his “revolting” crimes, knowing he has no chance of ever being released.

A Perth man who admitted being obsessed with serial killers before he murdered his three children, wife and mother-in-law has spent his first night behind bars, knowing he will never be free again.

Anthony Robert Harvey, 25, pleaded guilty to murdering his family and has become the first person in Western Australia ordered by a judge never to be eligible for parole.

Harvey killed two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix, three-year-old Charlotte and their mother Mara Lee Harvey, 41, at their Bedford home on September 3, 2018.

He killed grandmother Beverley Ann Quinn, 73, when she visited the next morning.

RELATED: Anthony Harvey sentenced to life in jail

RELATED: Key dates in Harvey family murder

Director of Public Prosecutions Amanda Forrester argued the killings were so degrading and abhorrent that Harvey should never have hope of freedom.

It would make him the first person ordered never to be released under laws changed in 2008.

“There is no other case that is truly comparable,” Justice Stephen Hall told Harvey in the WA Supreme Court on Friday.

“Your actions were so far beyond the bounds of acceptable human conduct that they would instil horror and revulsion into even the most hardened of people.”

Anthony Harvey will be jailed for life with no parole. Picture: Supplied.

Justice Hall said Harvey carried out the crimes with “apparently calm deliberation” and failed in his duty as a parent “in the most extreme way imaginable”.

In his journal, Harvey wrote about embracing his “darkness and animal instincts” and “doing the unthinkable to unshackle” himself from his family.

Ms Quinn and Ms Harvey were struck on the head with a 1.2 metre pipe and repeatedly stabbed with a newly-purchased large knife almost the size of a machete.

The children were murdered with a smaller knife and Justice Hall said there were more wounds than would appear necessary to kill.

They were all covered with a doona and flowers, as well as notes saying he was sorry and he loved them.

Taryn Tottman (right), sister of murdered Mara Harvey and her husband Alan Tottman (left) leave the Supreme Court in Perth on Friday, July 19, 2019. Picture: AAP/Richard Wainwright.

“Please remember my mum Beverley as a generous, committed, loving mum and friend that she was,” said Taryn Tottman. Picture: AAP /Richard Wainwright

The court heard how the women were unsuspecting, while the children were asleep when they were attacked.

Some details of Harvey’s offending are so shocking that they have been suppressed.

The court also heard about Harvey’s mental health and a suggestion he had symptoms consistent with high-functioning autism.

But Justice Hall also noted Harvey, who earlier pleaded guilty to all five murders, could have a narcissistic personality disorder.

Harvey remained at the house for days then gathered cash and travelled about 1500km north to Pannawonica where he turned himself in to police on September 9 with the help of his father.

Outside court, Ms Harvey’s sister Taryn Tottman said the sentencing was “extremely suitable” but the family was also suffering a life sentence. “Please remember my mum Beverley as a generous, committed, loving mum and friend that she was,” she said.

“My sister Mara for her love, support and determination. My nieces Charlotte, for her enthusiasm and laughter, Alice, for her sense of adventure and cheekiness, and Beatrix, for her spirit and of course her hugs.”