Grandad held over ax murders

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A GRANDFATHER suspected of hacking his two grandchildren and wife to death with an ax and badly wounding his daughter has been arrested, Australian police said yesterday.

Police were questioning the suspect last night, hours after the attack in Cowra, 250 kilometers west of Sydney. Police had earlier identified the man as John Walsh, aged 69, and released photographs to allow the public to help find him.

Walsh was arrested without incident 415 kilometers west of Cowra at a motel in the town of Hay, the police statement said.

Paramedics were called to the Cowra house and found three bodies, including the children, said a New South Wales state Ambulance Service spokeswoman.

The suspect was arrested about six hours later.

Cowra Mayor Bruce Miller said the children were aged seven and five, and their mother, Shelley Walsh, was a police officer in a nearby town.

She was attacked as she returned to the house, and fled to a neighbor's home bleeding from a deep gash on the side of her head, Terry Lovett, whose house the woman fled to, told ABC radio.

She was later flown to a Sydney hospital in serious condition, police said.