On Father's Day, September2, 2001, Father's Day, Sydney father Craig Andrew Merritt murdered his three children. The children, who each had different mothers, were found dead on a bed in their father's home. The children had been suffocated. They were Mikaylah Green aged 11 weeks, Taylah Pringle aged 11 months and six year old Jackson Merritt. He was originally sentenced to three life imprisonments, becoming the first person in Australia to be jailed for life for killing his own children. Merritt's appeal against the severity of the sentence was successful in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, and it was reduced to 34 years. The offender has a short record of previous criminal offenses. Most of them are of a minor nature, although there is one offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The 31-year-old, who had no history of mental illness, pleaded guilty to the suffocation murders of his three children. While he was diagnosed with a chronic, fluctuating depressed mood, there is no evidence Merritt suffered from any kind of mental disorder and had amicable relationships with all his former partners. In order to be found guilty of a criminal act is must be proven that the accused intended to commit the crime (Mens rea) and the accused actually committed a crime (Actus reus). The link between both mens rea and actus reus is called causation and this is important as the act must be at least the substantial cause of the crime that is, it must be what actually caused the crime. Merritt admitted to the police that he had purposely killed his children identifying that he had both mens rea and actus reus. The level of responsibility held by each party to a crime determines the level of punishment. This crime was a principal in the first degree as Merritt was wholly responsible for the crime, with no assisting parties. Merritt gave no explanation for smothering the children at his mother's Cabramatta home, claiming he had no recollection of the crime.