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Police arrest Sydney woman accused of attempting to drown her children

In September 2023, a passerby rescued two girls, aged seven and eight, from the Georges River in Sydney’s south-west

Maroosha Muzaffar
Wednesday 27 November 2024 23:59 EST
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File. A 37-year-old woman has been charged with attempting to drown her two young girls in Sydney’s south-west in September last year
File. A 37-year-old woman has been charged with attempting to drown her two young girls in Sydney’s south-west in September last year (Getty Images)

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A 37-year-old woman has been charged with attempting to drown her two young girls in Sydney’s south-west in September last year.

Emergency services were first called to Riverpark Drive, Liverpool, at about 10.30am, where the woman was found critically injured after falling from Light Horse Bridge on 11 September 2023.

Later that day, two girls, aged 7 and 8, were rescued from Sydney’s Georges River by a passerby and taken to the hospital for assessment. Police alleged she threw the children into the river.

Paramedics treated the then 36-year-old woman before she was transported to a hospital in critical condition.

“Officers attended and were told two girls – aged seven and eight – had been rescued from the river by a passer-by,” a statement from NSW Police read.

Police established a crime scene and have been investigating the incident ever since.

On Wednesday, the woman was arrested upon her release from the hospital and charged with two counts of attempted murder. She was taken to Liverpool police station, where she was charged with two counts of attempting to drown a person with intent to murder, police said.

“Police will allege in court the woman threw the two girls into the water,” a police statement read.

The 37-year-old was refused bail and appeared before Liverpool local court on Wednesday.

In 2019, a woman identified as Tanja Ludwig and her two-year-old daughter died after going over a cliff at Robertson Lookout near Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. Authorities investigated the incident as a potential murder-suicide.

Kathleen Folbigg, once labelled Australia’s worst female serial killer, was exonerated last year two decades after her conviction for killing her four young children between 1989 and 1999.

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