http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/they-died-forgotten-how-gambling-and-alcohol-shut-the-door-on-twins-lives/story-e6frg6nf-1226720524577

Edited due to having more time to write.

Read that story. Now take the facts and throw away the descriptive writing, the picture the person writing the article tried to draw. What you are left with is a very simple case, parents, one working, the other the primary care giver, were given equal sentences in a court of law for grossly neglecting their youngest children. Now look at all the strong words and unnecessary descriptive language. With the writers interpretation we suddenly have a desperate, poor, depressed mother at her wits end married to a workaholic, alcoholic and gambling addicted husband, its no wonder she was at her wits end and neglected her children, the poor woman couldn't cope with being a stay at home mum and he is the one to blame.

Painting the mother as just another victim is something done throughout the piece, e.g. "the mother was struggling to cope.", "Severely depressed, she had begged for help", "She knew she should have been feeding her littlest children more than just baby formula but, racked by debilitating mental illness, could not.". This is added to spark sympathy between the reader and the mother, the mother who let her twin babies die of starvation and neglect. I know it is stated (repeatedly) that she was struggling with depression, but she let her children become the victims of that depression.

I know it sounds like i'm just trying to stir a reaction but I've been following this case and IMHO this is the first time its been given a lot of national attention. Suddenly the neglectful parents have become 'He doesn't care enough and the poor mother couldn't handle it, he's a monster!'. According to the rule of the court both parents deserved an equal sentence because both parents were equally guilty, but as its written in The Australian, the father was neglecting his children, his house and his wife. He is apparently the root cause of the problem.

Both parents committed a crime, both parents neglected the children and both parents were given an equal sentence for their crimes by a court who had all the facts, who were much closer to the case and judged with as little bias as possible. According to the news article she is a victim of her own depression and her husbands neglect, but according to the courts they are both adults, they both had responsibilities and they both killed those children through neglect.