Dead twin toddlers may have starved, says mother

THE mother of twin toddlers found dead in their bedroom told police they may have starved to death, an Australian court has heard.

The decaying bodies of the 18-month-old boy and girl were found by a sibling, who smelled something unusual in their suburban home in the east coast city of Brisbane, the court was told.

Their 28-year-old father and 30-year-old mother appeared on charges of failing to provide the necessities of life after police discovered the deaths on Monday evening.

Police found the bodies in a “state of decay” and the children appeared to be malnourished, prosecutor Michelle Clarke said.

The mother allegedly told police she had noticed the twins were dead on either June 8 or 9, adding that she had been suffering from a cold and rarely fed or changed them.

When asked by police how they died, the mother allegedly said: “I don’t think I fed them enough.”

One weighed 4kg (8.8 pounds) and the other even less.

The father told police he did not know they were dead until Monday, although he had walked past their room several times since their death a week earlier, the court heard.

The couple’s other four children reportedly said they had rarely seen the twins, who had been kept in the front room of the house for most of their lives.

The prosecutor said that when the corpses were found by an 11-year-old sibling, the child went to the mother and said: “I know why you have been crying now.”

The court heard the parents were undergoing “significant relationship problems” and the man failed to support the children. The mother, who appeared overweight and wearing a brown prison tracksuit with her hair tied back, kept her eyes downcast throughout the briefing.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Tina Green told the court it was likely the charges would be upgraded once postmortem results were obtained.

“It’s most likely they are heading towards manslaughter or murder charges,” she said.

Magistrate Noel Nunan remanded the couple in custody until tomorrow to await the outcome of a postmortem examination.

“The circumstance of the death of two young 18-month-old children is bizarre, given that both the parents had been in the house for approximately one week since their death,” Nunan said.

Defence lawyer Michael Cridland, acting for the children’s father, said the man had little or no contact with the twins in the months before their deaths and argued the chance of securing a murder conviction was remote.