Australia: Man stabs stepdaughter, forces mom to listen to her dying cries

Brisbane: In February 2014, an Australian court heard a 44-year-old woman, who accused her husband of brutally stabbing her daughter to death, while she was forcibly held back from saving her dying daughter.

The 52-year-old man, Raymond John Mead, was arrested for murdering his stepdaughter in a fit of rage. He said that he hated his stepdaughter, Sherelle, 23. He held her responsible for problems in his marriage to her mother, Marlene Locke.

According to a report by The Sun, the Marlene and Sherelle caught up to spend some time together at Marlene’s home in Boronia Heights, south of Brisbane, Australia. It was a Sunday evening and Mead was out, drinking. Marlene had expected him to go straight to bed, but when he returned home, he went straight to the kitchen and began rummaging in the drawers.

It was just around that time when the daughter spotted something funny in a catalogue and began laughing. The mother joined her too, which apparently drove the accused to fly into a fit of rage.

He stomped into the room, looking angry and charged at Sherelle. The mother said, “He ran straight to Sherelle and pinned her to the sofa. He screamed, ‘Do you think this is funny?’ and just then, he struck her.” It looked as though Mead had punched her hard in the chest, but when he let go of her, Marlene noticed that Sherelle was bleeding profusely. He had stabbed her with a kitchen knife.

Sherelle cried out for help but the accused had gripped Marlene by the neck and held her against the wall. “I sobbed as I heard Sherelle howl that she was bleeding, but Ray kept his grip around my neck,” Marlene said.

When he finally did let her go, Marlene called the police immediately. When they arrived, Mead tried to put the blame on her, saying she had murdered her daughter. However, the police would not be fooled and arrested Mead. The paramedics tried to help the victim, but she was already dead.

Marlene told the court how Mead became controlling and abusive, suddenly after their marriage in 2008. He would control their finances and allegedly kicked her in her stomach when she was expecting a baby. After this, she filed for a domestic violence order against Mead and left the house. But he kept calling her to come back.

“Eventually he wore me down and I moved back in with him,” Marlene explained. “Violence became a regular part of my life. Sherelle would plead with me to leave him”. But it was not easy for Marlene since she had little money with her and two children, Zavannah and Owen, to care for.

Marlene regrets the fact that she let Mead back into her life, which ultimately caused Sherelle’s death.