Sydney stabbing: Mother charged over alleged murder-suicide attempt of her children

Police were called to a house on Monday morning after a woman allegedly stabbed her three children, including a paraplegic girl, before turning the knife on herself.

A mother of three has been arrested for the alleged attempted murder of her three children in the bedrooms of their Sydney home.

Police have charged a mother-of-three whose alleged attempted murder-suicide of her children was thwarted by their father after she attacked them with a knife in their Baulkham Hills home.

NSW Police released a statement late on Monday saying the 47-year-old woman was facing three counts of cause wounding/grievous bodily harm to person with intent to murder, and would appear before Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday through a bedside hearing as she recovered from allegedly self-inflicted stab wounds.

Police were called to the scene on Jamieson Ave in northwest Sydney at 5.20am after she allegedly stabbed her 10-year-old son and daughters aged 13 and 16, before turning the knife on herself.

The father allegedly woke to the sound of screams before rushing to disarm his wife, call triple-zero and render first aid.

Police and paramedics arrived and treated the family at the scene. They were taken to Westmead Hospital all in a stable condition.

Speaking at Castle Hill Police Station, Detective Superintendent Naomi Moore said the mother’s stab wounds in her abdomen were self-inflicted and the alleged attacks were being treated as a mental health event.

The 16-year-old, a paraplegic, suffered one stab wound and lacerations, the 13-year-old sustained three stab wounds, and the 10-year-old had two.

“The fifth person in the home, being the father, was the person who contacted police and assisted police on arrival at the scene. Police and ambulance service provided first aid to all of those persons, secured a weapon, declared a crime scene, and have placed under arrest that 47-year-old mother,” Superintendent Moore said.

Police Superintendent Naomi Moore addresses the media on Monday. Picture: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

“The female is under arrest and is under police guard.”

Police arrived within minutes of the call, and were executing a search warrant on Monday morning.

“We believe the father was in the home at the time. We believe the father and the children were all in their rooms, and potentially all of them were asleep,” Superintendent Moore said.

“Upon waking up to what I would believe to be a number of screams or yells, (the father) has then gone to approach the situation, and from what I am told, has secured the weapon.”

The family were not known to police prior to the alleged attempted murder-suicide, and neighbours in the quiet Sydney neighbourhood said they kept to themselves.

“It’s fair to say that the (mother’s) behaviour was a little bit erratic in the lead-up to this incident,” Superintendent Moore said. “It’s a tragic warning, it’s really very, very sad. The only thing I can be grateful for is that those children, they should make a full physical recovery. In terms of a psychological recovery, I guess time will tell what that means for them.”

Local resident Sara Wehbe said she loved the peacefulness of her neighbourhood, where her own children, aged six and four, could run out on the street each time they heard the chime of an ice-cream truck.

“Our area is very safe and quiet, it’s been devastating,” Ms Wehbe, 39, said.

“I’m really devastated for the family, and at the same time, I have two young kids, I was just so scared.

Neighbour Sara Wehbe was woken by sirens early on Monday after the alleged attempted murder-suicide of three children by their mother in Baulkham Hills. Picture: James Dowling

“I was in my bed, but I was hearing all this chaos. One of our friends messaged at 7am saying ‘are you guys OK? Because this happened right in your street’. Then I looked out the window and everyone was right here.

“I said to my husband this morning, ‘we have to keep the doors locked now’.”

The neighbourhood, according to its residents, made an ­occasion of Christmases and holidays, exchanging gifts across the fence.

Those neighbouring the site of the alleged attempted triple murder-suicide said the family were private.

“They were very quiet; I know roughly all the neighbours but not that family,” Ms Wehbe said.

A neighbour facing the property said the arrival of police and media marked the first time his doorbell had run in months.

For Mark Donkham, whose house faces the family’s, it was an unforeseen and tragic end to a benign front yard friendship.

“I did talk to the father occasionally when there was a rubbish clean-up day,” he said.

“I’d ask him if he needed any help putting stuff in the bins or taking them out,” he said.

Neighbour Raghu Raj, 48, shared a fence with the northwest Sydney family whose mother allegedly stabbed her three children in Baulkham Hills. Picture: Will Seitam

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