Mother-of-three admits to stabbing, strangled and suffocated her three children before burning their bodies – while court staff are forced to avoid repeatedly banging her head on the wharf
- Margaret Dale Hawke pleaded guilty to murder
- She strangled and stabbed her children in July
- Hawke banged her head repeatedly in the courtroom
A mother stabbed, strangled and suffocated her three children before burning their bodies in a house fire in the Western Australian town of Port Hedland.
Margaret Dale Hawke, 36, pleaded formally guilty to the murder of her 10-year-old daughter and two sons aged seven and four months at the High Court in Perth on Friday.
They died in July last year at the family’s home in Port Hedland, sending shockwaves through the town of about 16,000.
The court heard Hawke strangled her daughter with an electrical cord and stabbed her eight times in the chest and heart.
Her seven-year-old son was found with three stab wounds to his chest and wounds to his neck from also being strangled.
Margaret Dale Hawke, 36, (pictured) strangled and suffocated her three children before burning their bodies in a house fire
Hawke pleaded guilty to the murder of her 10-year-old daughter and two sons, aged seven and four months, on Friday at the High Court in Perth (pictured).
Hawke admitted to smothering her infant son before setting fire to her house and walking out into the street as it was engulfed in flames.
Prosecutor Justin Whalley SC told the court that a witness described her as “very calm” as she watched it burn.
Another heard her say, “He took everything from me.”
Mr Whalley said Hawke then screamed and cried, saying ‘My babies, my babies… You don’t have to suffer anymore’.
The public tried to enter the house and save the children, but it was too dangerous.
She told police she knew no other way to help her children before admitting to starting the fire.
“My three babies… I hurt my babies. I did it to my babies,” she said.
Firefighters extinguished the fire. The body of Hawke’s eldest son was found on a mattress in a room at the front of the property. Her daughter and other son were found in a room at the back of it.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and recovered the children, who were believed to have died before the blaze broke out
Hawke was taken to hospital where she later admitted to staff that she killed her children.
‘I don’t know why I did what I did. Maybe to stop the pain in all of us,” she told police in an interview after the incident.
Mr Whalley said Hawke told the children she loved them and asked for their forgiveness before killing her daughter, followed by her sons.
He said an arson investigation showed the fire was deliberately set with two points of ignition in the house.
None of the children were found with soot in their airways, indicating they likely died before the fire was started.
In court on Friday, Hawke was overcome with grief. She sobbed into the dock and banged her head repeatedly against a railing until security personnel stopped her.
Judge Michael Lundberg listened to the sentencing statements before deferring his sentencing decision to May 5.
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