Melbourne mum jailed for at least 20 years for lake deaths of three children
A mother who killed three of her seven children by driving into a Melbourne lake has been sentenced to 26 and a half years behind bars for her crimes.
Akon Guode, 37, was sentenced on Tuesday in the Victorian Supreme Court after earlier pleading guilty to the infanticide of her one-year-old son and the murders of her four-year-old twins in 2015.
Guode also pleaded guilty to attempting to murder her six-year-old daughter, who survived after Guode drove her 4WD into a Wyndham Vale lake on April 8, 2015.
Akon Guode will serve at least the next 20 years in jail for the deaths of three of her children. Picture: 7 News
The Sudanese refugee wailed in court as Justice Lex Lasry outlined the difficult personal circumstances Guode had experienced in the years before she killed her one-year-old son Bol, and four-year-old twins Hanger and Madi, by driving her 4WD into a Wyndham Vale lake on April 8, 2015.
"People don't understand why you did what you did," the Victorian Supreme Court judge said.
Akon Guode (left), pictured at the funeral service for her children at St Andrews Catholic in Werribee on April 18, 2015. Picture: AAP
"In my opinion your actions were the product of extreme desperation."
She will be eligible to apply for parole after a minimum of 20 years.
Police at the scene as the car Akon Guode was driving is pulled from Lake Gladham. Picture: AAP
The mother's time behind bars is less her pre-sentenced detention of 660 days already served.
More to come.
