An interesting insight into a very sad case.

It raises two very obvious issues. What alternatives to murder did Geoff Hunt have? What were the underlying causes of these violent crimes?

The obvious alternative to murder in this and many other cases, where the partners can't get along, is separation. Some people just can't be lived with (e.g. those with violent tendencies, many substance abusers) and according to some reports Kim Hunt became very difficult to live with after her brain injury.

It is obvious that brain injury and depression were major underlying contributors to what happened, though they do not justify the murders. Kim's behaviour (almost certainly an effect of her brain injury) according to the coroner was instrumental in provoking the killings and over time had contributed to Geoff's depression.

So where does all this fit within Malcolm Turnbull's thesis that ""all violence against women begins with disrespecting women". It doesn't fit.

A truly horrific crime in that 3 young children were murdered, and that can never be justified, no matter how dysfunctional the adults lives were. There are many people in the community dealing with just as bad, or worse, family issues who don't deal with it all by murdering their children.

Both Mr. and Mrs Hunt were presumed to be mentally ill, although Mrs. Hunt had a brain injury, which is often much harder to deal with for all concerned.

Obviously, Mr Hunt needed more help for both his mental illness, and his family situation. This sort of thing will keep happening unless these families receive more help in the home. People with these sorts of brain injuries that make them extremely difficult to live with need appropriate places to be cared for outside of the family home, with regular visits and access to their family.

However, as much as I feel sorry for the situation Mr Hunt found himself in, I still can't ever understand nor forgive the murder of his own children. That act is not an act of euthanasia, it is an act of domestic violence in the extreme. The kids didn't deserve that.

Tragic. Only a totally insensitive person would lay blame anywhere in this case. But the children .....they could have had worthwhile lives.

We don't know that the children could have had worthwhile lives. We don't know how badly they have been damaged. Mr. Hunt didn't know either. They may have been resilient enough to have had worthwhile lives. Mr. Hunt had no right to kill them.

What is necessary is to follow up on cases of brain damage resulting in personality changes and deal with its effects. That would be the actions of a nanny state, and sometimes a nanny state is for the best.

This is an utterly tragic case, with Geoff’s depression and Kim’s brain damage contributing to a ghastly outcome. I agree with Suse, proper professional care for both or each of them could have prevented this awful outcome.

But … the article misrepresents the coroner’s comments in a way that diminishes Geoff’s responsibility for killing his family. According to the linked article, the coroner did not talk of Geoff’’s “eccentric delusion”, as Peter’s article claims, but his “egocentric delusion”. The coroner said that “his distorted logic led him to conclude that the children and his wife would not cope without him. It was the result of an egocentric delusion that his wife and children would be better off dying than living without him."

However unbearable Geoff’s life had become, and however much sympathy he deserves, the fact remains that this was indeed an “egocentric delusion” that led him to kill his children and his wife as well as himself

Interesting enough in Hindu culture many wives are burnt alive after their husbands die as supposedly their lives are not worth living.