Megan Jayne Somerville, 38, asks court for release on day trips as fathers share their trauma after children stabbing attack
She stopped on a dark highway, pulled her kids from the car and stabbed them repeatedly. Now this mother wants to be released into the community for “shopping trips”.
SA News
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The former partner of a mother who stabbed her two young children on the side of a dark highway in 2022 found knives in their bedroom after the horror attack, a court has heard.
Now, three years after the horror ordeal, Megan Jayne Somerville, 38, has asked to be released from a secure mental health facility on weekly shopping trips.
In the South Australian Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, Somerville sobbed via video link from James Nash House as she heard her children and their fathers were still traumatised from the near-lethal attack nearly three years ago.
In his victim impact statement, the father of her now six-year-old son – who was just three when she stabbed him on the side of a highway – said he had come home from hospital with his son after the incident to a terrifying discovery.
“Before the incident took place, Megan was on top of my chest, with a kitchen knife threatening me and I was petrified,” he told the court.
“Little did I know, it was my own child’s life that would soon be severely in danger.
“After 12 days, coming back from the hospital with my severely injured and stitched son after the incident took place, I found knives in the bedroom, under pillows, inside clothing cupboards, underneath clothing cupboards, under the bed and other hidden spots.
“I had no idea how far she was capable of going.”
He said that after the stabbing, the only thing that kept him going was his son.
“He has been horrifically affected from this incident. He is incredibly clever so he remembers a lot. He often talks about violence. He is either petrified of knives and blood, or, when playing with other kids, he talks to me about wanting to use a knife when he disagrees with them.
“We can only hope that the accurate punishment is given for such heinous, evil acts.”
On August 15, 2022, police were called to the North-South Motorway just before 11:30pm following reports a woman had been detained by a member of the public.
The court previously heard Somerville, of Modbury Heights, stopped her silver Honda sedan and removed her two sons, aged three and eight at the time, before stabbing them “a number of times” with a knife.
The court also heard that she was under the effects of meth, cannabis and prescription medication that night.
A forensic psychiatrist who assessed her also told the court Somerville’s recount of the incident included her fear that she and her children were “facing a fate worse than death” and that they were being groomed to kill her.
In March, Supreme Court Justice Sandi McDonald found the mother not guilty of attempted murder due to mental incompetence.
Through her lawyer, Somerville apologised to her sons, telling them she didn’t deserve their forgiveness but hoped she’d one day have it anyway.
“Nothing I can say that can change anything. I am so sorry. I don’t deserve to be forgiven,” she said.
“I hope one day my sons will forgive me, that I can reconnect with them. but if they don’t want contact with me, I’ll have to accept it.”
Jeff Powell, for Somerville, said that although doctors who had assessed his client in recent months said she shouldn’t be allowed into the community, she should be released with staff from her facility on “supervised shopping trips” every week.
She will return to court again next month for further submissions.
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Originally published as Megan Jayne Somerville, 38, asks court for release on day trips as fathers share their trauma after children stabbing attack
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