Megan Jayne Somerville, 37, believed that her children were facing a “fate worse than death” when she stabbed them on the side of a road in Adelaide, Australia
A mum stopped her car on a road and stabbed her two young sons due to “severe delusions” that they were being “groomed to kill her”, a court heard.
Megan Jayne Somerville, 37, believed that her children were facing a “fate worse than death” when she carried out the attack on an Adelaide motorway, at 11.30pm, on August 15, 2022, the court was told.
Supreme Court Justice Sandi McDonald ruled she was not guilty of attempted murder due to mental incompetence. Somerville had stopped her silver Honda sedan before taking out two sons, aged three and eight, and stabbed them several times.
And Justice McDonald found that it was beyond reasonable doubt that Somerville, who appeared via video link at the court from a mental health hospital, did not know what she was doing.
“The objective elements of the offences are established beyond reasonable doubt,’ she reportedly said.
“Ms Somerville was mentally incompetent to commit the two offences of attempted murder and at the time of the incident, she was suffering from mental impairment and as a consequence did not know that the conduct was wrong.”
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The judge also said that Somerville’s attack on the children was “substantially caused by self-induced intoxication” but that she was “not guilty of the offence of attempted murder by reason of mental incompetence”.
The court previously heard how she had used meth, cannabis and prescription medication on the night of the attack, reported ABC News. A forensic psychiatrist said Ms Somerville claimed she stabbed her children as she “thought she was doing the right thing”.
He said: “She had such severe delusions that were of a certain nature that meant she thought her children were in danger of a fate worse than death, that they were being groomed to kill her, and when that was done, they would be abducted, tortured and killed. In harming the children, she thought she was doing the right thing in the circumstances.”
When police arrived, Somerville was being restrained by another motorist. The court heard she told police at the scene: “I’m proud of what I did,” and she was screaming that she loved her children when they were being taken away in an ambulance.
Psychiatrist William Brereton said the defendant had been experiencing worsening psychotic symptoms including delusions about paedophiles and that she believed her sons were aliens.
“I think as a result of her delusions, she felt compelled to harm her children because she loved them, because she thought she was saving them from a worse fate,” he said.
Prosecutor Lucy Boord SC said there would probably be a victim impact statement when Somerville returns to court in June.