A mother of three murdered two of her children in 2002 in a bid to commit the ultimate act of hate towards her former husband.

The Supreme Court in Brisbane was informed today that the forty-three-year-old woman, whose identity may not be revealed for legal reasons, had also tried to commit suicide and kill her 16-year-old son who is mentally handicapped.

Hailing from a suburb north east of Brisbane, the woman had been estranged from her husband and simply ‘lost it’ when the kids’ father managed to obtain a court order granting him custody of the children during the 2002 Christmas period.

Charged with two counts of murder as well as one count of attempted murder, the woman pleaded not guilty to all accusations.

Simone Bain, prosecuting, told the court the woman had administered sleeping pills in glasses of milk to all three of her children; her eight-year-old and sixteen-year-old sons and her ten-year-old daughter. The woman had then put her children in her car and told them they were heading to a McDonalds restaurant. She waited for everyone to fall asleep and proceeded to gaz everyone – including herself—after connecting a gardening hose from the vehicle’s exhaust pipe to the window.

The sixteen-year-old boy managed to escape and was apparently followed by the woman. The pair collapsed side by side on a bed.

The bodies of the woman’s two deceased children were discovered on November 22, 2002 in a car at a home in Sandstone Point, close to Bribie Island.

In a suicide note, the woman claimed that she wanted to make her ex-husband as miserable as he had made her feel.

Craig Chowdhury, the lawyer representing the accused, said that there was no question she had committed the murders, but rather brought to attention the critical issue of the woman’s mental condition during that period.