Updated September 21, 2026 — 3:00pm,first published 11:20am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA Detectives are investigating if a Sydney mother’s alleged stabbing attack on her three children was sparked by an argument with her husband hours earlier, as police issue
Updated ,first published
Detectives are investigating if a Sydney mother’s alleged stabbing attack on her three children was sparked by an argument with her husband hours earlier, as police issue an urgent plea for the NSW government to throw every available resource at domestic violence following a spate of killings at the weekend.
The killing of her five-year-old, who was stabbed alongside his two siblings inside a car in the Blue Mountains on Sunday afternoon, was the fourth domestic violence-related death across the state in just over 24 hours and has sparked calls from advocates for large-scale government investment in the sector.
“I can’t remember a weekend like this in my career,” NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Peter McKenna said on Monday. “It is really overwhelming.”
On Saturday, three women were allegedly killed by men known to them in a spate of attacks over less than 12 hours.
Just before midday, a 31-year-old man allegedly stabbed his female partner, 23, inside a Wagga Wagga home. He was charged with domestic violence murder and refused police bail to face court on Sunday.
At 5.15pm, police were called to a Bondi Beach unit where a 47-year-old man, Sergei Mitnik, allegedly fatally stabbed his 90-year-old grandmother. Mitnik’s lawyer, Javid Faiz, told a court on Sunday that his client’s mental state had been affected by the weight-loss drug Ozempic and asked that he undergo an urgent psychiatric assessment.
About four hours later, police were called to an incident at Mole River in the state’s north where they found the body of a 70-year-old woman, who appeared to have been decapitated. The woman’s son, Phillip John Denton, was refused bail on Monday.
Judge Miranda Moody called Denton’s alleged acts “horrific”. He was remanded in custody until November 18.
In the Blue Mountains, cyclists found the children and their mother, aged in her 40s, with stab wounds while riding near Springwood about 12.45pm before performing life-saving first aid. The five-year-old boy died at the scene, while his siblings were taken to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, where they remain in a critical condition.
Their mother, who McKenna said was not known to police, remains in a critical condition, suffering from what police believe are self-inflicted stab wounds. She is expected to be charged with the murder of the five-year-old and the attempted murders of her other children. She remains under police guard, but is yet to be interviewed.
Her husband was taken to hospital and was supporting his two surviving children, McKenna said. Why the mother had travelled to the Blue Mountains from the family’s western Sydney home would form part of the investigation into the attack.
Detectives were investigating whether an argument between the children’s parents was the catalyst for the attack, police sources with knowledge of the investigation but not permitted to speak publicly told the Herald.
McKenna, one of the state’s most senior officers, said more services were needed to intervene before domestic violence incidents reached police, including in the health, education and justice systems.
“It’s a whole of societal issue, domestic violence,” he said.
“It is an issue that everyone needs to speak up about, government needs to make sure they’re throwing every resource at.”
McKenna said police observed intergenerational poor role modelling, drug and alcohol abuse and the normalisation of domestic violence in some homes.
“There [are] so many things, but we’ve got to say enough is enough. It’s never acceptable and this weekend is a horrible and horrific experience of what we shouldn’t be seeing in Australia,” he said.
“It starts when children are very, very young. It’s the role modelling, it’s the expectations, it’s what we see [are] acceptable behaviours and that has to continue through the schools and education.
“We just can’t put up with that. We have to break that cycle.”
McKenna said none of the relationships at the centre of the attacks were known to police for domestic violence, and no apprehended domestic violence orders were in place to protect the alleged victims. The 31-year-old Wagga Wagga man was known to police for alleged domestic violence offending in a previous relationship, McKenna said.
“Police themselves are taking action more than we’ve ever taken in domestic violence now. One in four people before the courts is [in custody] for domestic violence. The jails are almost at capacity because of the action we’re taking in relation to domestic violence, but we can’t police something we don’t know about, and it’s not about police. We’re often the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff,” McKenna said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Monday it was “confronting” that domestic violence rates continued to rise even as governments continued to increase funding for prevention services and introduced harsher criminal penalties.
“We can’t become numb to the pain or the violence that we see, we still need to take action and commit ourselves across government agencies … to confront domestic violence when we see it, and ensure that we’re doing all available changes or making all available changes to keep people safe,” he said.
Domestic Violence NSW, the state’s peak body for domestic and family violence, said the crisis demanded large-scale investment, from the federal government to local communities.
“No woman should fall through the gaps between systems. No frontline service should be left carrying a national crisis alone,” it said in a statement issued on Monday morning.
“We cannot keep responding to women being killed one tragedy at a time. This is an intergenerational crisis that requires long-term commitment, co-ordination and sustained national investment. We have the evidence. We have the solutions. Now we need to resource them at the scale of the crisis.”
One woman was killed by an intimate partner every 11 days in 2024-25, according to recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. McKenna said police were responding to a domestic violence-related incident every three minutes. Police were observing an increase in familial violence, rather than intimate partner violence, he said.
“We’ve got all sorts of things that we’re dealing with, but domestic violence is the number one thing that we’re talking about every morning in police stations,” McKenna said. “About how we can prevent it, how we can keep people safe, and we will continue to do so.”
McKenna urged anyone experiencing domestic violence to seek help.
“If there’s anyone out there who feels as though there is nowhere to go, well, there is somewhere,” he said.
“There [are] people out there who want to help you. We want to help you.”
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
From our partners
For more tech updates, stay tuned to our blog.
