A mother who killed her two young children in Alberta has landed in her native Australia after serving two-thirds of her sentence for manslaughter.
Allyson McConnell was deported from Canada this week after earning early release from a psychiatric hospital in Edmonton. Her flight arrived in Sydney around 8 a.m. Wednesday local time.
McConnell and her mother were greeted by a throng of reporters at the Sydney airport. One Australian reporter said McConnell seemed awkward and uneasy as she walked by.
McConnell, 34, was originally charged with second-degree murder for drowning her two boys, two-year-old Connor and 10-month-old Jayden, in the bathtub at their home in Millet, south of Edmonton, in 2010.
Court heard that McConnell was severely depressed and suicidal when she killed her children. Afterwards, she drove to the city and jumped off a busy freeway overpass, seriously injuring herself.
McConnell was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in jail, but the judge gave her credit for time already served. After she served two-thirds of a 15-month sentence, she was transferred into the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency and deported.
McConnell’s former husband and the father of the two boys, Curtis McConnell, has spoken out against his ex-wife’s deportation and said that his family was kept in the dark about her release.
Meanwhile, provincial and federal officials have been accusing one another of not doing enough to keep McConnell in Canada pending the outcome of the Crown’s appeal in her case.
The appeal has yet to be heard.
McConnell’s lawyer, Peter Royal, said in a letter to the Edmonton Journal that Justice Minister Jonathan Denis knew for almost six months that his client would be sent back to Australia when her sentence expired.
Royal said the Crown did not ask for the appeal to be heard sooner and missed deadlines for filing background material with the court.
With a report from CTV Edmonton and files from The Canadian Press
