A YOUNG dad wrote a series of harrowing diary entries days before murdering his wife, children, and mother-in-law.
Anthony Harvey, 25, bludgeoned and stabbed wife Mara, 41, daughter Charlotte, 3, and twin daughters Alex and Beatrix, 2, at the family home in Perth, Australia.
He then waited for Mara’s mother, Beverley Quinn, 73, to arrive the next day before killing her in the same way.
Harvey pleaded guilty to the murders at a trial in June, and the following month was sentenced to life in prison with an order that he never be released.
The court heard Harvey waited for Mara to come home from a night shift at a local supermarket on September 3 2018 before hitting her with a piece of pipe and stabbing her to death.
He then stabbed his daughters as they slept, with three-year-old Charlotte later found to have suffered 38 stab wounds.
Beverley Quinn was killed when she arrived the following morning as she regularly did to help with childcare.
‘WHY WOULD I HURT THEM?’
Days earlier, Harvey had taken Mara to a bank and gotten her to authorise him to access her bank account without her present.
Five days after the murders, and having withdrawn £21,000 from her accounts, Harvey drove 870 miles to the town of Pannawonica on the northwestern coast of Australia, where his parents lived.
There, he confessed to his father what he’d done, saying: “I’ve done something really wrong.
“I’ve hurt all of them.
“I’ve hurt them all.
“I miss them.
“Why would I hurt them?
His father then took him to the local police station, where he confessed.
‘NO OTHER CASE COMPARABLE’
The bodies of his victims were later found at the home, covered and arranged as though they were cuddling and surrounded by the children’s favourite toys.
Handwritten notes were also found, addressed to Mara and Beverley, in which Harvey said he loved them, he was sorry, and that he would do anything to undo what had happened and thought he had lost his mind.
A search of his car also uncovered photos of the bodies as well as journals written by Harvey, one of which was titled: “This book is intended to explain and document my journey”.
One entry read: “Tonight, I will kill my wife and bludgeon and smother my daughters.
“Then the real hunting begins … but first my loved ones.”
The journals also listed what Harvey called his “options”, which included leaving unannounced, divorce, “making family disappear” and “eliminating” them.
Harvey is the first person to be handed a “never to be released” sentence since changes were brought in to Western Australia’s homicide laws in 2008.
At sentencing, Justice Stephen Hall said: “There is no other case that is truly comparable”.
Source: thesun.co.uk
