MORE COVERGAE: Moama drowning tragedy
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A 27-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of her five-year-old son and attempted murder by drowning of her nine-year-old son, after refusing to appear on video link in the Deniliquin Magistrates Court on Monday morning.
In a brief hearing, the charges were revised to include murder following the discovery of the boy's body in the Murray River, near Moama, on Saturday morning.
The woman's lawyer Peter Hebbard instructed the court that his client had refused to face the court and asked if a psychological assessment of his client could be completed before the next court appearance on May 2.
NSW Homicide detectives are expected to complete their brief of evidence by April 17.
The woman handed herself into police in Echuca at about 10pm last Friday, and is understood to have made a range of admissions before she was extradited to the NSW town of Deniliquin.
On Saturday, Mr Hebbard, said his client was confused and disorientated.
"I really got the distinct impression she doesn't know what's going on. Not in terms of the legal side of it, but in terms of just what's happening," Mr Hebbard said outside court on Saturday.
The 27-year-old mother is understood to have collected her two boys on Thursday evening and taken them fishing at a spot on the Murray River near the town of Moama.
It has been alleged in court that she first attempted to drown the 9-year-old boy, who managed to break free when his mother was distracted by the terrified screams of the younger brother.
As he returned to the riverbank, the older brother was mauled by a dog, and was later airlifted to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.
The five-year-old's body was found near the site where he disappeared at 11.35am on Saturday and was taken to Deniliquin.
Lawyer, Dale Brooks, who represents the boys' grandmother, said she was "absolutely devastated''.
The two boys had lived with their grandparents in Deniliquin for more than 18 months, and were only recently reunited with their mother when she was released from prison in the past few weeks.
The grandparents are understood to have been forced to have taken an apprehended violence order against their daughter and had recently alerted NSW Police, the Department of Family and Community Services in NSW and corrective services about her deteriorating mental state.
Mr Brooks said several "warning signs" had been ignored.
"She was obviously a very troubled woman, the mother of these kids, and there just does not appear to have been enough action taken about some of these early warning signs.
On Sunday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejilian launched a probe into the response by government agencies.
"This is a human tragedy of the highest order."
"We've asked for all our agencies to give us urgent reports on what they knew," Ms Berejilian said.
Over the weekend, the father of the two boys, who lives in Brisbane, launched a crowd funding campaign to raise $5000 to fund a trip to Melbourne to visit his injured son. He has not seen the boy for about six years and never met his five-year-old son who drowned in the Murray River.
- The Age
