Dad admits murdering family in Perth

A FATHER has pleaded guilty to murdering his three children, wife and mother-in-law in Perth.

Three-year-old Charlotte, two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix, and their mother Mara Lee Harvey, 41, were killed by Anthony Robert Harvey, 25, at their Bedford home on September 3, 2018.

He then murdered 73-year-old Beverley Ann Quinn when she came to visit the next morning.

Police said at the time that a blunt instrument and knives had been used to murder the family.

Harvey stayed in the house for days after the killings before travelling about 1500km north, then turned himself in to police in the Pilbara town of Pannawonica on September 9.

The bodies of Ms Harvey and Ms Quinn were found in the kitchen, while the children were killed in other rooms.

Harvey pleaded guilty to the murders when he appeared in Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court on Wednesday via video link from prison.

He will face a sentencing hearing in the West Australian Supreme Court on June 21.

Ms Harvey’s sister, Taryn Tottman, was in court but declined to comment as she left.

At the time of the deaths, she thanked the community for their support.

She said she learnt about the five deaths via the television, saying part of her “didn’t think it was real”.

Her husband Alan Tottman said there was never any indication Ms Harvey was in danger.

“There was no indication of trouble, problems,” he said.

“This will be forever. Time will heal certain pain but this will just go on forever.”

Harvey, who ran a Jim’s Mowing franchise, gave no hint of financial or emotional problems, Jim’s Group managing director Jim Penman similarly said at the time.

The case followed the shooting deaths of three adults and four children, all from the same family, in Osmington in WA’s South West region in May 2018.

A mother and her 15-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son were also killed at Ellenbrook, in Perth’s outer northeast, in July 2018.