A West Australian woman who murdered her three young children because she was not coping with her responsibilities as a single mother has been sentenced to life in prison with a 25-year minimum.
WARNING: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.
Margaret Dale Hawke killed her 10-year-old daughter, seven-year-old son and four-month-old son at their home in July last year.
Margaret Dale Hawke stabbed and strangled her two older children — a 10-year-old girl and a boy aged 7 — before smothering her four-month-old baby son at the family's home in Port Hedland in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
Hawke then disposed of the knife she had used at the beach, before returning to the house and setting it on fire with a cigarette lighter.
She walked out the front door as the fire engulfed the property.
When witnesses asked if there was anyone inside the property, Hawke replied, "my babies are in there" and she was also heard yelling "my babies, you don't have to suffer anymore".
"I love my babies, I did it to my babies, why, why?" she was heard saying.
She later told police she did not know why she had done what she did, adding "maybe to stop the pain".
She said that before she killed the children, she had told each of them, "I love you, please forgive me".
Hawke sobbed and at one point almost collapsed in the West Australian Supreme Court dock on Friday as she was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 25 years.
Grandmother in tears amid court tribute
Hawke, who was using drugs when she committed the murders, was flanked by two security guards in the dock.
Her mother, the children's grandmother, wiped away tears as she watched proceedings via video link from the Pilbara.
Other relatives, wearing ribbons to pay tribute to the victims, were in the public gallery.
Throughout proceedings, Justice Michael Lundberg did not name the children out of respect for them and respect for Aboriginal culture.
He said last week when details of the case were revealed, he had seen firsthand the emotional reaction Hawke had to hearing what she had done.
That had included her sobbing and banging her head in the dock — something Justice Lundberg revealed Hawke had also done during her interviews with detectives when she banged her head against the wall of the police station.
He described her reaction as "genuine" and "heartfelt", saying it was impossible to know what was in Hawke's head that could have led her to murder her own children.
No sentence enough to heal pain: judge
The deaths of the children shattered the Port Hedland community.
Since then, the house where the murders took place has been demolished and the court was told the site would be turned into a community park.
Justice Lundberg said while Hawke must be punished for what she had done, no sentence he imposed could bring back the children or mitigate the devastating impact their deaths had on their family members and the wider community.
Long-term violence
The court was told Hawke was exposed to violence throughout her childhood, including being assaulted by her parents, who were users of alcohol and drugs.
The exposure to violence continued in Hawke's adulthood, with the court hearing she had been subjected to what was described as horrific violence at the hands of her abusive partners.
It included her, on separate occasions, being stabbed and beaten with a pole.
She once said she had stayed with one partner because he was less violent than another.
At the time of the murders, Hawke was being pressured by the father of her two oldest children to marry him because he did not want to be deported when he was released from prison.
She was also hearing voices in her head, although Justice Lundberg said they were not commanding her to do what she did.
He said "tragically" on that day, Hawke had felt she had "no other solution" to her problems.
Justice Lundberg accepted Hawke was genuinely remorseful for what she had done, telling her "your heart has told you what you did was morally wrong … you have accepted the worst thing possible".
He also took into account her early pleas of guilty and her dysfunctional and "profoundly deprived" background in deciding the minimum term she should serve.
"As an Aboriginal woman born in the Pilbara in the 1980's you started life with significant disadvantages," he told Hawke.
Justice Lundberg said words could scarcely cover the terrible nature of what she had done, saying the children's final moments must have been terrifying.
Hawke must serve at least 25 years of her sentence before being considered for parole.
Outside court, the family of the children said that sentence was too lenient.
"We're not happy with the result, innocent children are dead," one family member said.
"She should have got life without being released from jail."
Women's refuge turned away family
It was revealed in the Supreme Court that on the night before the murders, Hawke had taken the children to a women's refuge in Port Hedland.
She asked for help but was told the refuge did not have the capacity to care for the children and so the family returned home.
Her lawyer submitted that at the time, Hawke was simply not coping with the responsibilities of being a mother, and she felt she was being intensely judged by others.
Hawke's life had been plagued by what was described as "dysfunction and difficulties" and the Supreme Court was told she had also been abandoned by the fathers of the children.
Justice Lundberg said he made no criticism of staff at the refuge.
He also noted that on the day of the murders, Hawke's mother had called the refuge and asked them to do a welfare check on her daughter, but when they called Hawke there was no answer.
That was because by then, she had already killed the children.
The refuge alerted police that they could not reach Hawke, but by that time emergency services were on the way to the family's property to fight the fire Hawke had started.
