The stepfather of two children found hanged in a cemetery in Western Australia pleaded guilty to murdering them when he appeared in court on Monday, a report said.
The bodies of the 14-month-old boy and his four-year-old sister were found in Pioneer Cemetery at Derby, 2 400km north of Perth, on April 23 this year, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Their stepfather, Terrence Laurence Dann (36) turned himself over to the police, who found one child still hanging at the cemetery and another on the ground. The officers tried frantically, but unsuccessfully, to revive them.
Dann also pleaded guilty to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm to his 29-year-old partner on the same day, the agency said.
At the time of the deaths, police said Dann inflicted a broken jaw and a collapsed lung on his partner before taking the baby boy and his sister to the cemetery.
Magistrate Wayne Tarr was told of a request by the family of the children to have Dann’s sentencing hearing held in the nearby town of Broome so they could attend.
But Dann’s lawyer said that for her client’s safety she had arranged for the hearing in Perth to be transmitted via closed circuit television to a court in Broome.
Dann will be sentenced on October 3. – Sapa-AFP