Source : Perth Now news
The deaths of three children murdered by their mother will be examined at an inquest following sustained political pressure.
Jamela Hawke, 10, and her brothers Anand, 7, and Kelvin Jr, four months, were violently killed by their mother, Margaret Dale Hawke, in the family’s Port Hedland home in July 2022.
WA Attorney-General Tony Buti on Thursday directed the state coroner to hold an inquest into the vulnerable children’s deaths, saying there was fresh evidence.
“I have personally reviewed the files from the Department of Communities and police, and they are truly heartbreaking,” he told reporters on Thursday.
The order reverses former WA coroner Phil Urquhart’s decision not to hold an inquest into the deaths.
“There is new evidence and circumstances that were not considered by former coroner Urquhart,” Dr Buti said.
The decision follows mounting political pressure on the WA Labor government from the children’s grandmother Dorothy Papertalk, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, the WA opposition and others.
“This tragedy is unspeakable, and my thoughts have and always will be with the family members that are grieving,” Dr Buti said.
Hawke was sentenced in 2023 to a minimum non-parole period of 25 years after she pleaded guilty to three counts of murder.
The Supreme Court heard Hawke grew up in a violent home amid alcohol abuse and she had been abused in a series of relationships as an adult.
In the lead-up to the murders, she had been using a cocktail of drugs, including methamphetamine, and her state of mind was likely impaired as a result.
She had repeatedly asked for help from community groups and medical staff, saying she was struggling to care for her children, but few options were available.
Dr Buti declined to provide details of the new information that had prompted him to order an inquest.
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