CAIRNS, Australia — A judge on Sunday (HST) rejected a plea by lawyers for an Australia woman charged with killing eight children to have the next hearing held in a mental health court.
Mersane Warria, charged under her full name of Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, is facing eight counts of murder in the deaths of seven of her children and her niece, whose bodies were found inside her northern Australia home last week.
Police were called to the home in the Cairns suburb of Manoora on Friday morning after receiving a report of a woman with serious injuries. When they got to the house, they found the bodies, along with Warria, who was suffering from stab wounds to the chest.
Warria, 37, did not attend a brief hearing at Cairns Magistrates Court on Sunday as she is recovering from her injuries in a hospital.
Warria’s lawyer, Steve MacFarlane, said his client was expected to be examined by psychiatrists and that the case could still be heard in mental health court after that assessment was completed.
“I think she probably knows what happened but doesn’t realize it and it hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I’ve spoken to her and she’s coping the best that she can at the moment.”
The case has been adjourned until Jan. 30.
Police haven’t said how the children died, but Queensland Police Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said that they’re examining several knives in the home that may have been the weapon used to kill them. Suffocation was also a possible cause of death, he said.
“We are considering that and that’s why it’s taking a bit of time,” he said on Sunday. “It could be a range of things, from suffocation to a thousand other things.”