The Post

Mother admits plot to kill kids in accident

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AUSTRALIA: A mother has admitted murdering three of her seven children despite earlier insisting dizziness or witchcraft was behind her fatal drive with them in her car into a Melbourne lake.

Akon Guode, 37, showed little emotion as she pleaded guilty to the infanticid­e of her 1-year-old son, Bol, and the murders of her 4-year-old twins, Hanger and her brother Madit.

Guode yesterday also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of her 6-year-old daughter, Alual, who survived the crash in Wyndham Vale on April 8, 2015.

The mother’s plea comes before her trial for the murders in the Victorian Supreme Court.

As the charges were read to her yesterday, with the help of an interprete­r, the only words Guode said were ‘‘guilty’’ to each charge.

None of her family was present and detectives who investigat­ed the children’s deaths did not comment as they left court.

Guode was in August ordered to stand trial for three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder following a four-week committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrate­s’ Court.

After the bodies of her children were pulled from the lake, the mother blamed a dizzy spell for causing her to lose control of the car.

But an investigat­or said the car was deliberate­ly driven into the water.

Several police re-enactments showed the car could not have drifted off the roadway, as Guode claimed.

The re-enactments also demonstrat­ed a driver would need to turn the steering wheel three times to get into the water.

Several passers-by and witnesses recalled hearing the car’s engine’s revving after it had landed in the water.

A key witness also testified that Guode believed witchcraft had caused the crash.

Guode had told the woman she thought she was under a ‘‘spell’’ when she drove into Lake Gladman.

Guode will return to court on January 31. – AAP

 ??  ?? The Slants has spent years locked in a First Amendment battle with the US government, which refuses to register a trademark.
The Slants has spent years locked in a First Amendment battle with the US government, which refuses to register a trademark.

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