Grandma `tried to revive overdosed kids’: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 21 Feb 2008: 8.
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Abstract
“The mother had cut wounds to her arms,” she said. “And her two kids — I reckon they’ve just been overdosed. The two kids were blue, they were cold. The mother was blue as well, but not as bad as the two kids. There were tablets lying between the mother and thelittle boy.”
Reports in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald were headlined: “Mum held after young children stabbed to death.” The story went on to claim that “two young children were found with multiple stab wounds in their southwestern Sydney home”.
[Inspector Gary Clark] praised [Wendy]’s “brave and courageous” response.
Full Text
A GRANDMOTHER performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on an unconscious woman and her two dead children as they lay together in a bed in a Sydney home.
The grandmother, who gave her name as “Wendy”, lived in a granny flat at the rear of the house in the western Sydney suburb of Canley Heights.
She said she had been called to help by the children’s distressed father, who returned home from work to find his wife unconscious.
Wendy said the husband initially could not find his young son and daughter.
With tears flowing down her face, Wendy yesterday described how the woman’s husband jumped on the bed and grabbed his wife on the chest, shaking her. After that, she saw the girl’s arm fall out from beneath the blankets.
Wendy, who is not related to the family, said she was overcome with a “sickening sadness” as she pulled the blankets back and saw the cold and blue bodies of the three-year-old girl and five-year- old boy.
She gave them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but the children did not respond.
Wendy is convinced they were already dead. She said there were prescription pills and pill packets lying about the room.
“The mother had cut wounds to her arms,” she said. “And her two kids — I reckon they’ve just been overdosed. The two kids were blue, they were cold. The mother was blue as well, but not as bad as the two kids. There were tablets lying between the mother and thelittle boy.”
The 29-year-old mother was under police guard at Liverpool Hospital in western Sydney last night. No charges had been laid.
The 31-year-old father was heavily sedated and being treated for shock.
The couple are of Vietnamese background and had been living in the humble rented house for about three months.
Police were forced to take the extraordinary step yesterday of issuing a public statement correcting incorrect reporting on the case by Fairfax newspapers.
Reports in yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald were headlined: “Mum held after young children stabbed to death.” The story went on to claim that “two young children were found with multiple stab wounds in their southwestern Sydney home”.
The Cabramatta Local Area Command crime manager, Detective Chief Inspector Gary Clark, said: “The children were not attacked in the backyard ofthe property. The children donot appear to have been stabbed.”
Inspector Clark praised Wendy’s “brave and courageous” response.
Forensic investigators spent most of the night at the house, while local police canvassed neighbours and relatives yesterday in an attempt to piece together what led to the tragedy.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out on the children’s bodies.
Preliminary investigations suggest the family were not known to the NSW Department of Community Services.
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