I, as with most people, was shocked and appalled to read these reports over the last week. How the Hell could these people do this shit ?? Just beggars belief !!
Sibling 'found dead, emaciated twins'
The mother of 18-month-old twin toddlers who lay dead in a bedroom for a week allegedly told police: "I don't think I fed them enough."
Their father had walked past the children's room but said he didn't know the boy and girl were dead, and hadn't seen them since Christmas, a Brisbane court also heard on Tuesday.
The children's deaths emerged after their 11-year-old sibling - alerted by an unusual smell - found their decomposed and emaciated bodies in the front room of the rented house in Brisbane's Sunnybank Hills.
The child allegedly said to her mother: "I know why you have been crying now."
Police found the toddlers' bodies at the couple's house around 7pm (AEST) Monday.
The 28-year-old man and his 30-year-old partner have been charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.
But the charges could be upgraded to murder, Brisbane Magistrates Court was told.
The couple was remanded in custody until Thursday pending the results of post-mortem examinations.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Tina Green told the court that once the examination was completed, it was "most likely" the charges would be upgraded to manslaughter or murder.
An earlier court hearing was told that police found the bodies in a "state of decay" and the children appeared to be malnourished.
The mother told police she had noticed the twins were dead on either June 8 or 9, the court heard, but she did not report their deaths.
She told police she had been suffering from a cold and rarely fed or changed the twins, it is alleged.
The court heard the children weighed the same as newborns and appeared to be suffering from malnutrition.
One weighed 3.6kg and the other 4kg, and the mother allegedly told police: "I don't think I fed them enough."
The couple's other four children said they rarely saw the twins, who had been kept in the front room for most of their lives, the court heard.
Defence lawyer Michael Cridland, appearing for the father, told a second of two court hearings on Tuesday that his client had only been informed of the children's deaths on Monday.
His client was "further removed in his culpability" than the mother because he had not been responsible for supporting the children.
Mr Cridland said the pair had been undergoing "significant relationship problems", and his client had not seen the twins since Christmas, despite living in the same house.
The mother was the primary carer and the father took the older children to school before going to work each day, he said.
However, Sgt Green said the man had to walk past the twins' bedroom to get to his own room, where he slept separately from his partner.
Both the accused refused to undergo a psychiatric assessment.
They are expected to make applications for bail on Thursday.
The mother's four other children - three of whom were fathered by the accused man - are staying with their grandmother.
A spokesman for Queensland's Department of Child Safety said the twins were not known to the department.
He said the family was reported to the department before the twins were born, but no evidence requiring action was found.
"Where there is no evidence for the department to take action, it has no legal basis to intervene with a family and it would be totally inappropriate for the department to attempt to do so," the spokesman said.
Sibling 'found dead, emaciated twins'
Twins' gran says siblings doing it tough
14:40 AEST Wed Jun 18 2008
The grandmother of twins found dead in a Brisbane house says their siblings are doing it tough.
The twins' elder sister, 11, and three elder brothers, aged three, four and five, are now in the care of their grandmother.
The grandmother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the Seven Network the children were healthy, but too young to understand what had happened to their brother and sister and why their parents were in jail.
"They are very traumatised," the grandmother said.
She said her main aim now was to let the children know they were wanted and to keep them together as a family.
Meanwhile, Acting Queensland Premier Paul Lucas has said neighbours who know children are being neglected or abused should report them immediately to authorities.
"I think it's important whilst we all have an obligation that if we know something, then we say something," Mr Lucas said.
The suggestion was not about victimising or "pointing the finger" at people, he added.
Neighbours had noticed the twins' older siblings were often seen in the street and not in school, but that was not a cause for official complaint, he said.
On Tuesday, Queensland's Child Safety Department said the twins were not known to them.
Police found their decomposing bodies on Monday night in the cot they shared in a rented house in Sunnybank Hills.
A spokesman for the Child Safety Department said the family had been reported to the department before the twins were born but no evidence requiring action had been found.
"Where there is no evidence for the department to take action, it has no legal basis to intervene with a family and it would be totally inappropriate for the department to attempt to do so," the spokesman said.
On Tuesday, the twins' 30-year-old mother and 28-year-old father appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court, charged with failing to provide the necessities of life.
The pair were remanded in custody until Thursday pending the results of a post-mortem examination of the twins' bodies.
Twins' gran says siblings doing it tough
Parents of twins charged with murder
18:06 AEST Thu Jun 19 2008
Related links:
PHOTOS: Twins' deaths shock nation
The mother and father of twin toddlers found dead in their Brisbane home will now also face murder and torture charges.
Police found the decomposing bodies of the 18-month-old boy and girl on Monday night in the cot they shared in a rented house in Sunnybank Hills.
They had been dead for up to nine days.
Prosecutors added the new charges of two counts each of murder and torture when the twins' 30-year-old mother and 28-year-old father couple sought bail in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday.
The couple will still face the original charges of failing to provide the necessities of life.
The pair were remanded in custody.
They are expected to remain in custody until a court mention on August 4, but could seek Supreme Court bail before then.
The new charges were laid following autopsies on the bodies of the toddlers.
A suppression order briefly imposed on reporting of the case was lifted on Thursday afternoon, following a challenge by media organisations.
No further details of the case were outlined on Thursday, with much of the court hearing taken up with legal argument over the suppression order.
The twins' older sister, 11, and three older brothers, aged three, four and five, are now in the care of their grandmother.
Neighbours reported that some of the siblings had turned up on their doorstep hungry and naked.
Education and child safety authorities have confirmed they had been in contact with the family in recent years.
The older children had missed school classes but were not considered to be at risk.
The Child Safety Department said the family had been reported to it before the twins were born, but no evidence had been found requiring action.
Premier Anna Bligh, who returned from a United States trade mission on Thursday, said it did not appear authorities could have done anything to prevent the incident.
"But obviously we'll be looking to see what contact, if any, the family had with any government agency," Ms Bligh said.
"It's a very timely reminder, I think, to reach out a helping hand to our neighbours if we see them in trouble."
Parents of twins charged with murder
The mother accused of torturing and murdering her twin toddlers in Brisbane this week posted messages online saying she couldn’t cope with the demands of parenthood, it has emerged.
The 30-year-old woman left a series of comments on forum Bubhub — which she admitted were “selfish” — describing her despair after the birth of the children, the Courier Mail reported.
The mother and her estranged partner, neither of whom can be named, had charges of failing to provide the necessities of life upgraded to torture and murder yesterday, after the bodies of the 18-month-olds were found on Monday.
She posted the comments online in December, around the time of her break-up with the children’s father and when the abuse is alleged to have started.
"I would like to know how other parents of large families cope from morning to night," she wrote.
"I find that I am drowning since I had the twins. I just can't get everything flowing nicely any more in a routine, it is just do whatever, and at the moment it is killing me.”
She also complained she was unable to lose the 30kg she had gained during the pregnancy.
At one point, she said that concern over her appearance left her in tears, and prevent her from going out.
She felt she did not have enough energy to feed and bathe the children.
The twins’ four siblings are now in the care of their grandmother, who took them to hospital yesterday to undergo health checks.
It was one of the children who found the twins’ emaciated bodies in the front room of the family home after being alerted by an unusual smell, a Brisbane court heard earlier this week.
They had been dead for up to nine days.
The mother of the twins allegedly told police later: "I don't think I fed them enough."
She and her estranged partner will be held in custody until a court mention on August 4, but could seek Supreme Court bail before then.
Twins' mum told of despair online