HOME > STORY Get News by Email Print This Article Email This Article Killer family 'mentally ill' August 22, 2002 A slain woman's husband and children, who killed her because they believed she was a witch, were found not guilty of murder on the grounds of mental illness. The 35-year-old nurse was stabbed in the chest and had a pair of surgical needle holders inserted up her nose into her brain at her Glossodia home, in Sydney's north-west, on October 16 last year, after she returned from working a night shift at a hospital. Her estranged husband, 40, a former social worker, and son, 18, stabbed her while the daughter, 16, helped beat her and held her legs down to stop her from struggling. The three pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of mental illness. None of the family can be named. Today Justice Graham Barr in the NSW Supreme Court accepted psychiatrists' reports which found that at the time of the killing, all three defendants were suffering from a disease of the mind and that they did not realise what they were doing was wrong. The father and son had a history of mental illness and had previously been admitted to psychiatric institutions, the court was told. The father believed his wife was evil, a witch and a Satanist, who drank blood from pewter chalices and killed babies at the hospital where she worked. Two weeks before the killing the father had believed he was Jesus Christ, the court was told. The son told police his mother killed and ate babies, drank blood, sacrificed humans and cut him in his sleep. He also claimed he was a witch and demon hunter employed by God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The children said they believed their father when he told them their mother had died in a car crash and when she returned they thought she was a demon. The daughter told police her mother used to cut her brother into little pieces when he was young and drink his blood. She thought the demon wanted to cut off her brother's testicles. Justice Barr ordered the three to be held in custody and referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal which would decide when they were no longer a danger to the community and could be released. The court heard the father had constantly assaulted his wife and she got an apprehended violence order against him which he continually breached. The father moved to Katoomba, west of Sydney, with his son but the victim was still frightened of him and feared for her life. "(The) father spoke about God, Jesus, angels, demons, casting them out and being an inquisitor and witch hunter," Justice Barr said. "(The son) and his father would spend time killing angels with their minds and speaking with angels ... (the son) came to believe everything his father was saying." The court was told father and son went to the victim's house where she was living with her daughter the day before she was killed after the father checked himself out of a psychiatric facility. Outside court the victim's sister said she was devastated by the verdict. "Mental illness does not give you a licence to kill," she said. "She told me that she knew ultimately that he would get her." AAP Back Get News by Email Print This Article Email This Article OTHER HEADLINES