father murders his children

I've lost track of how many times this has happened now. 99 times out of a hundred it's the father that does this, not the mother. Remember that man who was in dire straights financially and killed his whole family including the family pets? Must be something to do with the way the male mind works.

Sometimes it seems to be done to spite the mother. There were the usual pointless interviews in the newspapers with neighbours who did not know the family at all, and of course the DM gave the value of their house. How, in the name of all that's unholy, can that be of any relevance? But of course, they often show photos of the outside of courts - anything to fill the page.

Sick to your stomach describes it exactly. I cannot imagine what that poor mother must be going through AND the grandparents, paternal as well as maternal. It must be a living nightmare. As to the copycat effect, you may well be right. It is just unthinkable.

I think a lot of us who feel that our families are in a vulnerable position right now will be trying to put the copy-cat theory out of our heads - with varying degrees of success.
I know they have to report these cases, but it just brings home how easily lives can be torn apart.

I keep thinking of how terrified the children must have been.....

Pure evil on the part of the father. And yes, I do believe press coverage of other such murders gives them the idea. They see the agony of the wife left behind and think it's a good idea to hurt their own hated spouse that way, or it might be a case of 'If I can't have them no-one can'.

Thing is, you can't censor the press in this way. I wonder how many wives and kids have sensed it coming and escaped?

And Shakespear said 'hell hath no fury like a WOMAN scorned'!

What an absolutely hideous thing to do - as everyone has said, there seems to have been too many of these killings by fathers recently. Those poor, poor children being taken away by someone they loved and trusted, only to watch as one by one they were murdered, it completely defies belief. How could any father do that to his own children?

How their mother can ever recover from something like this must be pretty well impossible. I can't begin to imagine how the family on all sides must be feeling.

Evil cannot even come close to describing that man.

He must surely have been mentally ill - this is not the action of a sane person. How desperate for that poor mother - it does not bear thinking about.

I agree with you Mishap.We do not know the facts, we do not know the people involved. It is hideous. I am also revolted by the way relationships and feelings are documented day by day on Facebook.

It's beyond understanding isn't it - how anyone could kill any child is mind boggling and to kill your own children is positively bestial. I've tried to imagine it and ended up upsetting myself. One can only think that he was totally insane - otherwise it is even worse to think that he calculated it out of spite. Then the miserable coward he was, he kills himself. The poor mother must be mad with grief. As crimson said there have been a number of instances - like the chap who chucked his son out of a hotel window because he couldn't get custody. The little girl lived and so did he - glad he lived so he can think about his crime for all of his miserable life.

I agree with Mishap and Grannylin
Obviously this, and other similar incidents are horrendous and evil but we do not know the facts.
We know nothing of what the children and their father had been through, or were going through. It doesn't necessarily mean that the mother was innocent, but I am also obviously not making excuses for the father.
I wouldn't wish what that poor woman is going through now on anyone.
There has to be a period of total insanity for anyone to commit a crime such as this and to be honest we have to feel for all the people involved and not judge who is to be classed as 'evil' and who is 'innocent' as the only innocents in cases like this are the children.
I haven't worded this very well but what I am trying to say is that we cannot judge anyone without knowing the full facts and the only people to know that are the parents.
I am in no way condoning the evil we have in the world these days - society has sunk to terrible depths where children and the elderly are abused, men and women battered by their partners, drink and drugs are 'to blame' for so much bad behaviour, and evil is allowed to flourish and basically anything goes in a society where 'I'm going to do what I like, who is going to stop me' - totally selfish.
Only by changing that attitude to one of caring for our neighbour and treating others as we would want to be treated can things improve?

I agree with all that you have said Sbagran. We must also all dread what the children went through, and I just feel that their father must have been a really tormented man to have done that to his own children. I doubt if we shall ever know the true reason for his action.

Sbagran you are right to say we should not brand people 'pure evil'. We have no real understanding of the situation at all. It is a terrible tragedy for all those who are connected to the family and I cannot begin to imagine how I might react if I was involved in such a tragedy.

I agree that we should try not to brand anyone as 'pure evil' but his actions were pure evil; sadly I think all humans are capable of pure evil under certain circumstances. I cannot accept that we should make excuses for his actions - we don't accept excuses for men who assault and murder their wives and I think that his actions probably came from the same place: power, control, and rage.

With you there, nightowl. It would have taken time to think about what he planned to do, and to carry it out. It just doesn't bear thinking about, what those little children suffered.

The mind of the father who killed his three children, had surely been rendered incapable of rational thought. Something unbelievably awful must have sent him into the downward spiral of insanity. I pity him.

It's certainly not unknown for fathers in other species to kill their young in certain circumstances.

Can't help but feel it's a combination of modern day society and primevil instincts. Didn't someone mention [when we were talking about the Call the Midwife series] that when men took over someones family the children sometimes didn't survive [a bit like a male lion taking over a pride]. However it's probably a man using the children to make their mother suffer in these cases and not having the mothers basic instinct to protect and nurture the children. There must surely have been some research into these cases as they sadly seem to be on the increase.