03.05 am, Thursday May 24 2012

Mother drugged, slashed kids: courts

18:10 AEDT Tue Sep 7 2010
By Daniel Fogarty
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A Melbourne mother accused of drugging her two young children before cutting their throats and wrists has been committed to stand trial.

Christine Steinberg, 42, is alleged to have attempted to murder the children, one of them a boy aged just seven months, at her home in Glen Waverley on April 29 this year.

The court heard that Steinberg had recently been diagnosed with depression and told her husband Chen she could not cope with the children.

Steinberg on Tuesday pleaded not guilty and is expected to argue she was mentally impaired at the time of the alleged attack.

In a summary tendered to the court, police allege Steinberg drugged the seven-month old baby and a girl aged three-and-a-half by putting prescription pills into peanut butter and giving it to them.

She then unpacked a packet of razor blades and cut their throats and wrists, it is alleged.

Steinberg later used the razor blades to cut her own wrists, the court heard.

All three were rushed to hospital with critical injuries.

A third child, aged two, was unharmed.

Steinberg has since been certified as an involuntary psychiatric patient.

On Tuesday, the committal proceeding heard the pills found in the peanut butter had not been analysed by forensic experts.

In a statement to the court, Ms Miros said Steinberg had been diagnosed with depression two days before the alleged attempted murders.

"She told him (her husband) that she could not cope with the children and the house," she said in the statement.

Magistrate Peter Reardon ruled there was enough evidence for Steinberg to stand trial.

Asked for her plea, Steinberg replied: "Your honour, I plead not guilty".

She is due to face a directions hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court on September 21.

 

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