A man accused of stabbing a woman and two boys to death had allegedly planned to kill himself, but instead phoned triple-0 and said: 'I kill ... with knives.'
Md Shomon Ahamed, 47, was arrested at a property in Campbelltown, south-west of Sydney, about 8pm on Monday and charged with murdering an IT worker, 46, and two boys, aged 12 and four.
According to police documents obtained by the Daily Mail, Ahamed allegedly used a knife to kill the woman and the children before phoning triple-0 to alert emergency services.
'They are all downstairs,' he allegedly said, according to the documents, and allegedly added that the knife was in the garage.
When police entered the home, they allegedly found Ahamed waiting by the door and the woman's body in the garage with a bloodstained knife. The boys' bodies were in a bedroom. All had lacerations and other 'significant' injuries. Ahamed told police the boys suffered from autism.
He allegedly said he struggled with depression since being diagnosed with cancer, which is now in remission.
The court documents also allege Ahamed planned the murders after reading reports about a murder-suicide in Perth in January.
Photos obtained by the Daily Mail show the adult victim celebrating family birthdays and sightseeing with extended family, who migrated to Sydney from Bangladesh. In Facebook posts in September, she told friends and family that she went to a Microsoft summit in Circular Quay, and celebrated 'IT professionals day'. She also posted photos of sunsets and a video of the boys playing at a game arcade. In another post from 2017, she posted a photo of the oldest boy, saying: 'My small world.'
Ahamed, who became an Australian citizen in 2017, was charged with three counts of murder after cooperating with police during an overnight interview and was later refused bail. He did not appear in court when his matter was briefly mentioned in Campbelltown Local Court on Tuesday. He did not apply for bail and the case was adjourned to July 15.
Jawad Hosain from Blackridge Law said his client was 'distraught and distressed'. 'We don't wish to comment on the proceedings, my client enjoys the right to the presumption of innocence,' he said outside court.
The alleged murders have left residents in the usually quiet neighbourhood reeling as they try to come to terms with the tragedy that unfolded in their street. Amanda Wasillewski, who lives three doors down from the family home, said she had only met the alleged victims once. 'It was a chance meeting - our peacock flew into their yard, so I had to go over and catch her and I met the two children,' she said. She said locals often referred to the neighbourhood as 'the retirement village' because of how quiet it usually was. 'We didn't hear anything - not even a peep, because normally we would be alerted if we heard a scream or anything. We would have gone to investigate to see if someone needed assistance, but there was absolutely nothing.'
Another neighbour told the Daily Mail the family was 'pretty quiet' and mostly kept to themselves, adding he never saw the children playing in the street. 'I heard the ambulances but just thought somebody had a heart attack or something,' he said. Another neighbour laid roses outside the home in tribute to the victims. 'This is just terrible to wake up to find out this happened on my mother's street, I can't believe it,' they said. 'I'm feeling for these children, their friends, they've gotta go to school and find out their little mates aren't coming to school today - it just breaks my heart.'
Footage from Monday night showed the street flooded with police vehicles as homicide investigators cordoned off a large area around a two-storey home.
