Kaihana Hussain's family, in September, left Adelaide, where she was enrolled in a Christian school, Pembroke. They moved to the Gold Coast, the strip of high-priced apartment blocks in South-East Queensland better known as the preferred destination of high-school leavers wanting to let off steam following the October exam period. The city boasts an unenviable rep as a pocket of sleaze and loose morals.

But Kaihana didn't come for 'Schoolies'. It seems that her parents, who are devout Muslims, wanted "to start a new life, start work at a new practice and get the family back on track", according to The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Kaihana had gotten involved with a Christian boy, Benjamin Brady, who would later offer to front up the necessary $5000 for her bail, after she killed her mother and tried to do the same to her father. According to The Australian:

Kaihana had told neighbours her decision to convert to Christianity pushed her father into a violent rage. Later, according to police, she claimed her father had stabbed her mother before trying to strangle her.

Police have found evidence of Kaihana's intention to hurt her parents. It includes:

• a scrapbook containing notes on "How to kill your parents, a complete guide"
  
• a message to her boyfriend posted by Kaihana after the attack on an internet chat room saying, "it's all over, it's make-or-break time. I either get freed for life or I go to jail for life".
  
• a recording of Kaihana telling her boyfriend: "Even if I do end up in jail for the rest of my life it is worth it."

"They arrived on the Gold Coast two days before the stabbings," says The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Police believe Kaihana tricked her parents into putting on blindfolds, saying she had a surprise for them. Then, holding a kitchen knife which she had allegedly used to prepare dinner, she allegedly stabbed them, inflicting wounds 20cm deep.

The World Evangelical Alliance ("a network of churches in 127 nations") and Apologia Christi (a Christian blog run by "a former attorney") have picked up on the story, stamping it with the authority of a verse from the gospel of Matthew ("Pray God will reveal the truth in this matter and Kaihana will be set free," writes blogger Bill K.).

Kaihana, who turned 17 a week ("five days" says The Courier-Mail) before she stabbed her parents (I assume that the names of children under 17 years old may not be revealed in the press, in Queensland), now faces the prospect of life imprisonment.