Akon Guode has had more than eight years slashed from her jail sentence following a successful appeal.

Guode was jailed for 26 and a half years – with a minimum of at least 20 – after driving into the Wyndham Vale lake with four of her seven children in the car in 2015.

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to the infanticide of her 17-month old son, the murder of her four year old twins and the attempted murder of her now six-year-old daughter in May last year.

But the Court of Appeal has found the sentence was manifestly excessive.

Chief Justice Anne Ferguson acknowledged the mother had an extraordinarily difficult life, finding her balance of mind was disturbed at the time of the killing.

She had given birth to her youngest child and witnessed her husband being murdered in South Sudan.

The Sudanese refugee has been re-sentenced to a maximum term of 18 years and could be free after 14.

– Stefanie Waclawik