Angelrat
Former Member
Victorian mum in Australia Carol Matthey has been committed to stand trial for the murders of her four young children between 1998 and 2003.
The 26-year-old from Bannockburn, south-west of Melbourne, pleaded not guilty to suffocating her two sons and two daughters aged from nine weeks to three years.
Previously, coroners had found seven-month-old Jacob and his two-month old sister Chloe died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Three-month-old Joshua was found to have died of a rare infection, klebsiella septicaemia, while three-year-old Shania died the day after falling off a table.
In court, supported by her father-in-law, Matthey displayed no signs of emotion when Melbourne Magistrate Duncan Reynolds found there was enough evidence to send her to trial on four counts of murder in the Supreme Court on July 4.
He granted her bail and she had already provided an $80,000 surety and surrendered her passport.
Outside court, Matthey's lawyer John Butler said he was confident a jury would clear his client, whom he described as a loving mother.
"In the end, we really believe that Carol will be acquitted," he told reporters.
"She has done nothing wrong, she has looked after her kids, she loves her kids.
"She is just an ordinary, caring mum and she has lost four kids. It is a uniquely sad case."
Mr Butler said it would be a long road for Matthey before the allegations against her were put to a jury.
He said pre-trial legal processes in the case could take up to a year after the July 4 directions hearing set down for his client.
In his written judgment, Magistrate Reynolds said pathologists from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Science found "human intervention" did not cause the siblings' deaths.
He said their opinions were at odds with other expert witnesses who examined the autopsies, including forensic pathologist Allan Cala.
Dr Cala found the injuries to Shania's nose and mouth suggested the application of "external pressure" to those areas at the time of her death.
American forensic pathologist Dr Janice Ophoven, who has performed more than 1,200 autopsies on children, told the committal hearing she had never seen a proven case of multiple SIDS in one family.
Magistrate Reynolds said a jury would have to evaluate the clashing opinions from expert medical witnesses.
"In my view, it is properly the function of a jury in the circumstances of this case to consider and come to a determination upon the conflicting expert evidence," he said.
"I consider that a jury could be satisfied to the requisite standard (beyond reasonable doubt) on all the evidence that each of the children died as a result of non accidental suffocation and that the perpetrator was the defendant."
The 26-year-old from Bannockburn, south-west of Melbourne, pleaded not guilty to suffocating her two sons and two daughters aged from nine weeks to three years.
Previously, coroners had found seven-month-old Jacob and his two-month old sister Chloe died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Three-month-old Joshua was found to have died of a rare infection, klebsiella septicaemia, while three-year-old Shania died the day after falling off a table.
In court, supported by her father-in-law, Matthey displayed no signs of emotion when Melbourne Magistrate Duncan Reynolds found there was enough evidence to send her to trial on four counts of murder in the Supreme Court on July 4.
He granted her bail and she had already provided an $80,000 surety and surrendered her passport.
Outside court, Matthey's lawyer John Butler said he was confident a jury would clear his client, whom he described as a loving mother.
"In the end, we really believe that Carol will be acquitted," he told reporters.
"She has done nothing wrong, she has looked after her kids, she loves her kids.
"She is just an ordinary, caring mum and she has lost four kids. It is a uniquely sad case."
Mr Butler said it would be a long road for Matthey before the allegations against her were put to a jury.
He said pre-trial legal processes in the case could take up to a year after the July 4 directions hearing set down for his client.
In his written judgment, Magistrate Reynolds said pathologists from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Science found "human intervention" did not cause the siblings' deaths.
He said their opinions were at odds with other expert witnesses who examined the autopsies, including forensic pathologist Allan Cala.
Dr Cala found the injuries to Shania's nose and mouth suggested the application of "external pressure" to those areas at the time of her death.
American forensic pathologist Dr Janice Ophoven, who has performed more than 1,200 autopsies on children, told the committal hearing she had never seen a proven case of multiple SIDS in one family.
Magistrate Reynolds said a jury would have to evaluate the clashing opinions from expert medical witnesses.
"In my view, it is properly the function of a jury in the circumstances of this case to consider and come to a determination upon the conflicting expert evidence," he said.
"I consider that a jury could be satisfied to the requisite standard (beyond reasonable doubt) on all the evidence that each of the children died as a result of non accidental suffocation and that the perpetrator was the defendant."