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Family joy at son's move to Tasmania

Nicolau Soares's siblings Kathryn Weston and Alexander Soares. Picture: Steve Pennells/The West Australian

When Nicolau Soares agreed to move from Perth to Tasmania to live with his mother and stepfather, his family thought it was "a dream come true".

Exactly two weeks after he arrived at the isolated Mountain River home of Del Weston and Gavin Mooney, the 29-year-old killed the former WA academics in their lounge room.

Details of Mr Soares' troubled years with a violent biological father when he was a toddler, his success in sports and music as a child and his social isolation as a teenager emerged in his siblings' evidence in the Tasmanian Supreme Court yesterday.

The siblings, his half-sister Katherine Weston and brother Alexander Soares, told the murder trial in Hobart of their mother's frustration at not being able to get help from the WA mental health system until the symptoms of her son's schizophrenia reached a crisis.

The siblings described a young boy who had a talent for playing the guitar and excelled in gymnastics, training at an elite level with the WA Institute of Sport by the time he was 10.

But they also told the story of a young man gripped by episodes of delusions, unable to comprehend his own illness and believing his medication was harmful.

In a statement accepted into evidence, Ms Weston described Mr Soares' protracted and upsetting involuntary admissions to the Alma Street clinic in Fremantle after his behaviour became increasingly agitated, confused and affected by delusions.

She said in the years leading up to the deaths in December 2012, her mother had felt "hopeless and frustrated" because it seemed impossible to get help for Mr Soares until there was an "acute crisis". Alexander Soares, his voice at times breaking with emotion as he testified, described his elder brother as an "anxious" but otherwise normal child.

He said despite his brother becoming socially isolated as a teenager, he was still known as the "family comedian". But he said from about 2006, it was apparent his brother had serious health issues.

PARENTS KILLED WITH TOOLS, COURT TOLD

Alexander Soares told the court his brother began having "absurd" delusions, including conspiracy theories that he was going to be killed and "bizarre" beliefs that he had "superhuman" powers.

Delusions included a belief his mother and stepfather were poisoning him. He was convinced an apocalyptic event was imminent but he was a "chosen one" who could survive, the court was told.

Alexander Soares said it was impossible to challenge him on the theories that were his "world" and "reality".

He said his brother also believed he received subliminal messages from movies and songs, becoming increasingly obsessed with a Guns N' Roses song Cold War, which referred to genocide.

Alexander Soares said in the lead-up to the killings, his brother accused his mother and stepfather of being responsible for "genocide". He also referred to genocide in text messages to his younger brother the night before the alleged murders.

The siblings told the court that they found a note, written by their brother, at the scene of the deaths which quoted lyrics from the song and ended with the word "genocide".

Alexander Soares told the court that his mum was unable to sleep and her health deteriorated because she believed she had exhausted every avenue in trying to get her son help.