Melbourne:
A 51-year-old Australian woman has been sentenced to 27 years in jail for killing her two minor sons in what she described as her "greatest act of love", a media report said.
Terming the murder as "premeditated" the Supreme Court handed out the sentence to Donna Fitchett, a nurse who drugged and killed 11-year-old Thomas and 9-year-old Matthew at their home on September 6, 2005, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' reported.
Though she admitted that she murdered her children but pleaded not guilty by reason of "mental instability".
She, however, told the court that her depression led to her minor sons' deaths as she intended to take her own life and felt she could not leave the boys behind.
But Justice Elizabeth Curtain branded Fitchett's actions her "greatest act of betrayal".
"You were their mother. Your responsibility was to nurture, care for, love and protect them and over the years you did that. But in the greatest act of betrayal and in a profound breach of trust, you robbed each of them of their precious lives in an act of unfathomable selfishness.
"You knew what you were doing, you contemplated it, planned it and wrote about it, before you did it. No sentence this court gives can restore life to their sons, or peace to their father," the judge was quoted as saying.