Sydney: The home where eight children were found murdered in northern Australia will be demolished and a memorial built on the site, news reports said Monday.
Flowers continued to be laid by grieving relatives on the front lawn of the home in a Cairns suburb where four boys and four girls aged between two and 14 years old were found murdered on Friday.
The mother of seven of the children and aunt to one girl found dead, Mersane Warria, 37, was charged with their murder and was ordered Monday by a Cairns court to remain in custody until January 30, when the case will be heard again.
“After extensive consultation we will remove the house behind me,” local member of parliament Gavin King told reporters.
King said the removal of the house and installation of a memorial would comply with the family’s wishes and cultural beliefs relating to spirits on the site, broadcaster ABC reported.
Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor was also quoted as saying the home would be torn down.
Warria — whose full name is Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday — is in hospital with 17 stab wounds to the chest and was not required to appear before the court Monday.
The magistrate declined a request from the defence lawyer to have the case heard by the Mental Health Court.
Under Queensland law a doctor can certify a person for an involuntary treatment order if they are satisfied they have a mental illness.
Meanwhile, Warria will have her case heard in January, a court said Monday, as she struggles to come to terms with what happened.
The Cairns Magistrates Court refused an application by the women’s lawyer Steven MacFarlane for the next hearing on January 30 to be in a mental health court.
This is procedural as MacFarlane said she was currently on an involuntary treatment order and would be assessed, “so once she gets assessed, then it may go to a mental health court at that stage”.
MacFarlane said Thaiday, who did not attend the hearing as she remained in a Cairns hospital under police guard with non life-threatening injuries, was still coming to terms with what happened.
“I’ve spoken to her, she’s coping as best she can at the moment,” he told reporters outside the court.
“I’m not a doctor, I think she probably knows what’s happened but doesn’t realise it, it hasn’t sunk in, is my personal opinion only.”
The hearing came as the local member of the Queensland state parliament, Gavin King, said the public housing home in the suburb of Manoora where the bodies were found could be demolished and a permanent memorial instead built on the site.
“I started that conversation on Saturday morning down at the site with various family representatives and local residents and various agencies,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Police said Sunday that crime scene investigators were still working in the house, describing it as a “long process”.
“We still have experts there. It will be a long, hard road from here on in,” detective inspector Bruno Asnicar said.
Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children but said they were looking into various scenarios, including suffocation. They also said knives were found at the house.
