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A teenager charged with murdering his mother and seriously injuring his sister in a suburban home in Bentley has told a court he did not “do that”.
The distressed boy, 16, made two appearances via video link in Perth Children’s Court on Wednesday, the day after the alleged attack in the city’s south-east.
“On the 21st July in Bentley it said you murdered [your mother],” the magistrate said during his first court appearance.
“Why would I do that? I didn’t do that,” the boy said, clearly upset.
“There is a further charge that you attempted to unlawfully kill (your sister),” the magistrate said.
The court appearance, in which pleas were not entered, followed the discovery of a 35-year-old woman’s body at a home in the suburb of Bentley on Tuesday morning.
A girl, 12, fled the family home with several stab wounds.
Her brother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, initially refused to face the court for his second appearance.
He was eventually coaxed to sit in front of the camera at the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre, where he has been remanded in custody.
A bail application was not made on behalf of the boy, and he walked away from the camera part-way through the hearing.
Legal Aid lawyer Claire Rossi told the court an urgent application had been made to contract the services of a senior lawyer to represent the boy for his criminal charges.
The court heard a second lawyer would be needed to represent him for the child protection proceedings.
A mental health assessment and a communities department report were ordered before his next court appearance in two weeks.
Hughes asked the detention centre staff to explain the proceedings to the boy, saying it could be confusing for him.
The boy’s sister fled to a nearby highway for help after she was allegedly stabbed, with passers-by providing her with life-saving first aid.
She was taken by ambulance to Perth Children’s Hospital, where she remains in a stable condition.
Earlier on Wednesday, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the girl was receiving care for “very serious injuries”.
“She is being well looked after … surrounded by family,” he said.
Mr Blanch said investigators were treating the incident as “a family violence homicide against family members”.
The boy, who was known to police, remains in custody.
On Tuesday, a source close to the family told this masthead the boy had been before the justice system on a number of occasions.
And the source said the family, who were allegedly known to the state’s child protection system, had reached out for support that never came.
“He was failed by the courts,” the source said, after explaining that the boy had lived “a transient lifestyle” since he was 10 or 11 years old.
“They reached out for support and got nothing,” the source said.
“His family loved him. It’s a sad tragedy.”
with AAP
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