A mother has admitted murdering three of her seven children despite earlier insisting dizziness or witchcraft was behind her fatal drive with them in her car into a Melbourne lake.
Akon Guode (37) showed little emotion as she pleaded guilty to the infanticide of her one-year-old son, Bol, and the murders of her four-year-old twins, Hanger and her brother Madit.
Guode today also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of her six-year-old daughter, Alual, who survived the crash in Wyndham Vale on April 8, 2015.
The mother's plea comes before her trial for the murders in the Victorian Supreme Court.
As the charges were read to her on Monday, with the help of an interpreter, the only words Guode said were "guilty" to each charge.
None of her family was present and detectives who investigated the children's deaths did not comment as they left court.
Guode was in August ordered to stand trial for three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder following a four-week committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.
After the bodies of her children were pulled from the lake, the mother blamed a dizzy spell for causing her to lose control of the car.
But an investigator said the car was deliberately driven into the water.
Several police re-enactments showed the car could not have drifted off the roadway, as Guode claimed.
The re-enactments also demonstrated a driver would need to turn the steering wheel three times to get into the water.
Several passers-by and witnesses recalled hearing the car's engine's revving after it had landed in the water.
A key witness also testified that Guode believed witchcraft had caused the crash.
Guode had told the woman she thought she was under a "spell" when she drove into Lake Gladman.
The woman said Guode believed her lover's wife may have used a witch doctor against her.
The witness gave evidence she overheard Guode say she would "rather take her own life and that of the kids" than see them live with her lover, Joseph Manyang, and his wife.
During Guode's committal hearing Mr Manyang said he believed it was an accident and continued to visit Guode in prison.
He said she was a good mother who loved all her children.
Guode will return to court on January 31.
