CAIRNS, Australia (AP) — A judge on Monday 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 Monday as she is recovering from her wounds in a hospital.
Magistrate Alan Comans rejected a request from Warria’s lawyer to have the case’s next hearing in a mental health court. Criminal cases are sometimes referred to such courts if the defendant is believed to be mentally ill or has an intellectual disability. The court then decides what the defendant’s mental state was when they committed the offense.
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.
