An aspiring Islamic State fighter and father is accused of slaughtering his wife in front of their three children, gouging out her eye and flushing it down the toilet.

The Melbourne man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, took his young children with him in the car to dump their mother's mutilated body in grassland.

He then took them to a bakery to eat pastries.

At the accused killer's committal hearing on Thursday, a magistrates' court heard the children are now in the care of child protection services and are highly disturbed.

The aspiring Islamic State fighter and father is accused of slaughtering his wife

A Department of Health and Human Services officer gave evidence that when one of the children was given a doll to play with in a sandpit at school and noticed it was missing a limb, he commented "that's what had happened to his mother".

Police documents tendered to the court allege the extremist father regularly abused his wife and children, and had a keen interest in fighting for the so-called Islamic State in Syria.

The documents say the wife objected to her husband's jihadist sympathies and that conflict over this may have led to her death.

The body of the mother, aged in her 20s, was found by a jogger in Melbourne's north last year.

It was so badly disfigured and tightly bound in cling wrap, a quilt and tape police could not tell what gender she was.

Forensic analysis revealed two severed fingers, a missing right eye and deep cuts all over.

The woman remained unidentified for weeks.

Police visited the family's home in early July for a "welfare check" and finding the three children badly injured, arrested the father.

He has been charged with murdering his wife and causing injury to the children.

A policeman who attended the home testified that the father had a "thousand-yard stare" and did not want to let him inside.

"He appeared jittery," Sergeant James Marsden said.

Police found the house almost devoid of furniture, apart from a few urine-soaked mattresses, crates and a heater.

The children had injuries including bad bruising.

Police obtained statements from family members saying the accused killer wanted to go to Syria to fight for IS

The husband exerted extreme control over his wife, physically, financially and socially, the documents state.

One had burnt feet, which witnesses told police was the result of the accused submerging her feet in very hot water.

Police obtained statements from family members saying the accused killer wanted to go to Syria to fight for IS and that he had once sliced his wife's hand with a knife because she objected.

The husband exerted extreme control over his wife, physically, financially and socially, the documents state.

She was not allowed outdoors without him, was forced to wear a full-length burka, was isolated from her family and friends, and suffered regular beatings at his hands.

He did not allow his children to go to school and just wanted them to study the Koran, the documents say.

Police allege the children mentioned the "Anti-Christ" several times in interviews.

"Muslim tradition holds that the Anti-Christ has one eye, and often that the right eye is missing, or is blind in the right eye," the document says.

"This may bear connection with the accused removing the right eye of the deceased."

The committal hearing is due to continue on Friday.

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged 5 to 25).

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency, call triple zero.