Killer mum Akon Guode asks for mercy with lighter sentence

A Melbourne mum who killed her three children and tried to murder another wants “mercy” as she argues for a lighter sentence.

Akon Guode killed her 16-month-old son, four-year-old twins and tried to kill a fourth child when she drove the family car in a Wyndham Vale lake in 2015.

She was jailed for a maximum of 26-and-a-half years after she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one charge of infanticide for the crime.

But that was overturned in the Court of Appeal and a reduced sentence of 18 years was imposed.

The court took into account Guode’s severe depression and trauma from witnessing war in South Sudan.

Prosecutors then appealed to the High Court which set that decision aside in March this year.

The Victorian Court of Appeal is now tasked with resentencing Guode.

Lawyer Paul Holdenson QC told the court at the resentencing hearing on Friday that the original sentence was “manifestly excessive”.

“At the end of the day his honour failed to give effect to his stated intention of giving significant weight to the principles of totality and mercy,” Mr Holdenson said.

Guode’s case was different from other cases where parents killed their children because there was no motive of revenge, vengeance, malice or hate, he said.

He said it was “wholly distinguishable” from the cases such as those of Robert Farquharson and Donna Fitchett.

Farquarson murdered his three sons on Father’s Day in 2005 by driving his car into a dam in a spiteful way of getting back at their mother.

Fitchett murdered her two sons, aged 9 and 11, in September 2005 in their Balwyn North home.

At the time Guode drove into the lake her mental functioning was impaired after giving birth to her youngest son, she was struggling to cope and was being pursued by debt collectors, the court was told.

The South Sudanese mother had a “major depressive disorder” and symptoms of post-traumatic stress order, a psychiatric report previously found.

Her isolation in prison because of language and cultural barriers was also compounded by the coronavirus crisis, Mr Holdenson said.

However the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd QC argued the crime was “heinous” and the original sentence did take into account mercy, totality and the mother’s mental state.

“Given the heinous nature of this offending mercy has been shown, and a significant weight was given to the mental health issues,” Ms Judd told the court.

She said Guode’s disadvantaged background was taken into account but said it was important other sentencing principles weren’t ignored including the gross breach of trust.

Infanticide is a crime that can only be committed by women under Victorian law.

It involves the death of a child under the age of two at the hands of a mother who’s mental balance is disturbed because she failed to fully recover from birth.

It can also apply where the mother is suffering a disorder consequent on her giving birth to that child.

The Court of Appeal justices reserved their decision for a later date.

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