Helen Patricia Moore was a teenager in Claymore, a suburb in the south-west of Sydney, New South Wales, when a run of deaths among small children began in 1979. By March 1980 three children had died, all of them relatives or children she was minding. In 1980, at the age of 18, she was convicted of three counts of murder, with other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was released in 1993.
The court, the plea, the exact wording of each charge and the date of sentencing are not on record. No finding about her mental state is on record either.
Moore grew up in Claymore, in Sydney's south-west, where her family lived. She was 16 when the deaths began. The children who died were young members of her own family or children in her care.
The first death for which she was convicted was that of a young cousin, a toddler, in May 1979. A girl in her care died in early 1980. The last death was that of her young stepbrother in March 1980, and it led to her arrest.
Other children in her care in early 1980 survived.
Moore was arrested in 1980. The place and the day are not on record. She was convicted of three counts of murder, with other charges. Whether she pleaded guilty or was found guilty after a trial is not on record.
She was sentenced to life imprisonment; accounts differ on whether it was one life sentence or three. She was 18.
She was released in 1993, after about thirteen years in custody. Her parole ended in 2005. Where she lives now is not on record.
An earlier death of a young half-brother, in 1978 or 1979, has never been the subject of a charge or a conviction, and no court has found her responsible for it. It is not counted among the convictions. The age of the third child who died, and the way the case reached its verdict, are not settled.
May 1979: a young cousin dies in Sydney's south-west.
Early 1980: a girl in her care dies; other children in her care survive.
March 1980: her young stepbrother dies; she is arrested.
1980: convicted of three counts of murder, with other charges; sentenced to life imprisonment.
1993: released after about thirteen years.
2005: parole ends.