During the Easter break two little sisters, Indianna and Savannah, aged three and four, were found dead at their grandmother's home in Watsonia, Melbourne.

Their mother has said she is "utterly devastated" by their deaths. Their father has been charged with their murder.

Their deaths are believed to have happened during an access visit after the girl's parents separated more than a year ago.

Fairfax reports the two had been seen around the neighbourhood during regular visits with their father, who lived in a flat behind his former mother-in-law’s house.

Neighbours and friends of the family are in shock. Hardened emergency services workers have been moved to tears by the tragedy.

And yet, sadly, child deaths still keep happening at the hands of disturbed and vengeful estranged parents.  And small-town close-knit communities like Yass should not be fooled into thinking their safe haven is immune from this type of family tragedy.

Domestic violence cases make up a large component of our town's arrests and court cases. Husbands, wives, brothers, aunts, step-parents, house mates.

As a newspaper, our discretional policy is to not report domestic violence offences out of respect against identifying and thus humiliating the victim. Such is the stigma still attached to being a victim of domestic violence.

It was not long ago grieving mother Rosie Batty so passionately and eloquently floored Network Ten television host Joe Hildebrand for his insensitive comments suggesting women were failing in their duty of care to report violent husbands and fathers.

She fronted the show weeks after her son Luke's death at the hands of his father on a cricket field in Tyabb in February.

She was upset Hildebrand had completely missed the point that family violence victims were usually so consumed with fear of the consquences – not for themselves but for their children – and that fear prevented them from reporting child abuse or leaving their abusive partners.

"You know what happened to me? Greg [her former partner] had finally lost control of me and to make me suffer, the final act of control, which was the most hideous form of violence, was to kill my son. So don't you ever think that if we don't report it's because we don't want to. It's because we are so scared about what might happen," she told Hildebrand.

I don’t know what goes through a parent’s mind when they begin to think it’s an option to hurt the little people who love and trust them so much.

But I believe it’s naïve to presume these offenders showed signs of volatility which made it easy to pick when they would eventually crack. Sadly, it could happen to any family.