Mother whose daughter, 3, was killed with her psychotic father’s shotgun relives the shattering moment she found the lifeless girl in their home
- A mother has retold of her horror at finding her daughter after she was shot
- Three-year-old’s father pleaded guilty to manslaughter in court on Wednesday
- The man, who has a history of mental illness, left a shotgun in the girl’s bedroom
- Girl’s mother said she ‘collapses inside’ whenever she thinks of her daughter
- The man will be sentenced in Parramatta District Court on June 16
A mother has recounted the harrowing moment she discovered her three-year-old daughter’s body after the girl was shot with her paranoid father’s gun.
The woman, 44, had believed she could protect her children from their father’s reckless and unhinged behaviour, but tragedy struck when they found a shotgun he had stashed in a bedroom, Parramatta District Court heard on Wednesday.
In mid-2017, the woman had returned to her Lalor Park home in Sydney’s west to find it had been boarded up by the man, who has a history of mental illness and drug use, in a haze of paranoia.
The woman was 41-years-old at the time of the tragedy (pictured with her daughter and three sons)
The three-year-old girl(pictured) who was tragically killed after a gun had been left out in the house
The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named, has previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 4.
In a statement to the court, the mother described how she had been putting the children to bed and had been in her son’s bedroom while the man and his brother were outside in the driveway when the gunshot rang out.
‘I remember the gunshot and seeing my baby girl lying face down and not really knowing what was happening at the time but the scene echoes in my head and my thoughts to this day,’ the woman said, according to The Daily Telegraph.
‘I remember turning my baby girl over and seeing her lifeless eyes and there being so much blood everywhere.’
The woman had previously taken out an AVO against the man, who was well known to authorities, but had been ‘manipulated’ into letting him move back into their family house before the tragedy.
A picture understood to be the girl’s mother and father, who cannot be identified
The court heard how the man, whose other brother had been shot in 2001, was convinced shadowy figures were lurking about his house, with the paranoia leading to the boarding up of the property and stashing of the sawn-off shotgun.
The man’s barrister said on the night of the girl’s death in his delusional state his client had not left the shotgun between two mattresses too heavy for the children to lift as he believed he had.
Police were unable to confirm exactly how the shotgun went off but on theory is that another of the young children might have retrieved the weapon from under the bed and accidentally fired it.
Judge Stephen Hanley SC asked the man’s legal team what he should make of someone with a history of mental illness who had chosen to take psychosis-inducing illicit drugs.
He said the shooting had torn apart the family with the remaining young children taken away from their mother.
In her victim impact statement, the woman said she ‘collapses inside’ whenever she thinks about her daughter, has nightmares every day, and often jolts awake when she is able to fall asleep.
The biggest impact, she said, however, was the loss of her ‘beautiful baby girl’.
‘She would be at school now if she was still alive … I used to dream of the day she would grow into a beautiful young woman and live out her dreams. I see little girls everywhere that look like her and my heart hurts,’ she said.
The man will be sentenced on June 16 is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The man (left with the girl’s mother) has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and will be sentenced on June 16