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'Schizophrenia at its very depths' drove mother to kill eight children

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The first to die was the family's pet duck, killed in an attempt to rid the house of evil.

By then, Raina Thaiday had already been on a cleaning frenzy for a week, scrubbing the ceilings of her Cairns home and tossing possessions out into the yard in a bid to "cleanse" the house.

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Mother killed after 'messages from birds'

Raina Thaiday killed eight children in Cairns in 2014 while suffering from a "severe episode of psychotic illness.

But it was when she heard a dove's call, which she interpreted as a sign from God, that she decided she must "kill her children in order to save them".

The Mental Health Court of Queensland last month ruled, in a decision not made public until Thursday, that Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday was of unsound mind when she stabbed to death seven of her children and a niece in her home on December 19, 2014.

"To her way of thinking at the time, what she was doing was the best thing she could do for her children. She was trying to save them," Justice Jean Dalton said, exempting the mother from trial and confining her to mental health treatment.

Along the way the court heard details of the 40-year-old's descent into "schizophrenia at its very depths", likely exacerbated by years of heavy cannabis use, and culminating in her being in a psychotic state when she killed eight children under the age of 15.

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A week before the killing, her then-20-year-old son, Lewis Warria found Mrs Thaiday stressed and serious, spending large amounts of time lecturing him about God, the court heard.

She went on a mission to "cleanse" her house, which Justice Dalton noted went far beyond a "normal spring clean".

"All the furniture from the house was taken outside and put in the yard," she said.

"Inside the house was cleaned, in a most unusual way, including scrubbing the ceilings and the walls and a lot of Mrs Thaiday's possessions were thrown away.

"And a lot of them were quite valuable."

Things deteriorated still further the night of December 18. Her eldest daughter, niece and godchild had gone out shopping and did not return at 10pm as she had requested.

Mrs Thaiday walked up and down the street, "preaching" to neighbours about their use of drugs and alcohol.

Agitated, she slept outside on a mattress dragged out in the cleaning.

Justice Dalton said with the benefit of hindsight, the things neighbours heard as Mrs Thaiday walked up and down the street, talking to herself or on the phone, were "clearly psychotic".

"She was saying things like 'I am the chosen one'," the judge said.

"'I have the power to kill people and to curse people. You hurt my kids, I hurt them first. You stab my kids, I stab them first. If you kill them, I'll kill them'."

At 11.40am on December 19, Mr Warria arrived home to find his mother slumped on the front verandah, covered in approximately 35 self-inflicted stab wounds that included a punctured lung. His siblings and cousin were dead inside. 

Nearly two-and-a-half years later Mr Warria was in the courtroom inside Brisbane's Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law as a judge heard the opinions of six psychiatrists who had painstakingly analysed his mother's mental state.

The court heard when police and paramedics arrived Mrs Thaiday immediately admitted she had killed the children inside. "Papa God" had been speaking to her, she told psychiatrists, describing herself as the "anointed one" at risk from demons, who had to rid her Cairns home of an evil presence.

Psychiatrist Dr Angela Voita treated Mrs Thaiday from the day she came into The Park, one of Australia's largest mental health facilities, on Christmas Eve 2014, five days after the mass killing.

She assessed her more than 50 times and, along with three other psychiatrists who gave evidence to the hearing, unanimously agreed she was mentally ill at the time of the offences.

After examining reams of evidence and interviews, Dr Voita said her patient was not capable of telling right from wrong or being able to control her actions at the time of the killings.

Assisting psychiatrist Dr Frank Varghese described the "unique" crime as "a horrendous case, the likes of which I have never seen before, and hopefully will never see (again)."

"This is not ordinary schizophrenia," he advised the judge.

"This is schizophrenia at its very depths and at its worst in terms of the terror for the patient as well as for the consequences for the individuals killed as a result of psychotic delusions."

Mrs Thaiday had no psychiatric history or previous contact with mental health services outside of counselling at a local indigenous health service.

Independent psychiatrist Dr Pamela van de Hoef said there was some evidence that in 2007 she was also very disturbed.

"She had cut all her own hair off and threatened to kill one of the children with an axe."

In 2011, she had ideas to drown herself and similar thoughts two weeks out from the 2014 killing, the psychiatrist said.

The court heard cannabis was commonly linked to the onset of schizophrenia in those already vulnerable to the illness.

Ms Thaiday kicked a 10-20 cone a day habit in the months before the slaughter, leading psychiatrists to question whether her "psychosis" was a form of withdrawal, before mostly rejecting the notion.

Instead, Dr Jane Phillips and Dr Donald Grant agreed it was more likely the illness began to affect her while she was still using cannabis, causing to her to develop "religious delusions" that "forced her to live a clean life".

"Altogether it amounts to a very convincing body of evidence that Mrs Thaiday was psychotic at the time of the killing," Justice Dalton said.

She ruled Mrs Thaiday had the defence of unsoundness of mind available to her and issued a forensic order for ongoing mental health treatment.

Those experiencing mental health issues can contact Lifeline 131 114 or beyondblue 1300 224 636.