A WOMAN who burnt her sons alive after feeding them cheesecake laced with sleeping pills wanted revenge over an unhappy marriage, a coroner has found.

Anitha Mathew, 37, fed her sons Mathew George, 5, and Philip George, 9, cakes laced with Stilnox, then set their Clayton South home alight on June 1, 2012.

Ms Mathew, who also died in the evil revenge killing, emailed a friend shortly before starting the blaze saying: “I will try my luck in my next life”.

2012 REPORT: Murder-suicide theory in fatal fire

media_camera Forensic crews at the scene of the fire. The security shutters and door were torn off in a rescue attempt. Picture: Trevor Pinder.

media_camera Desperate attempts were made to tear the shutters open.

media_camera Neighbour Antonio Tranfaglia tried to rescue those inside. media_camera A firefighter at the scene.

In a finding handed down last week Coroner Ian Gray found there was no medical or psychological condition which could explain her actions.

“Ms Mathew’s killing of her two young sons is, on the available evidence, impossible to understand,” Judge Gray said.

“At the same time it is difficult to resist the conclusion that she was also punishing her husband, that there was vengeance in the filicides.”

Ms Mathew and her husband George Philip hadn’t spoken for months after their 13-year marriage fell apart.

Mr Philip later told police the couple stopped speaking after a fight about her cooking.

media_camera Anitha Mathew.

He had feared Ms Mathew would harm herself, and had complained to her father “he could not take any more of her behaviour (and told him to) either take her back or fix the issue”.

Ms Mathew had threatened to kill her husband, and later her family, in a phone call with a cousin in Canada.

“If nothing happens, I am going to kill him. I am going to die. I’m going to kill everybody,” she said.

“I was not a forceful husband to my wife, I was quite accommodating. I even allowed her to keep her maiden name,” he told the inquest.

But Judge Gray found some of his behaviour, including refusing to speak to Ms Mathew, was controlling within the meaning of the Family Violence Act.

“The tragic irony is ... Ms Mathew has committed the ultimate family violence in this case,” he said.

shannon.deery@news.com.au

Originally published as Woman burnt sons alive in revenge plot