Sef Gonzales (born 16 September 1980) is a Filipino Australian who was convicted and

sentenced in the Supreme Court of New South Wales to life imprisonment for the July
2001 murder of his father Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales, aged 46 years, his mother Mary Loiva
Gonzales, aged 43 years, and his sister Clodine Gonzales, aged 18 years, in Sydney, Australia.
When Sef only ten years old, he was trapped in the rubble of a building when it collapsed after
an earthquake. He sustained serious head injuries but recovered.
The family appeared to be close-knit: the parents, however, were devout Catholics who, as tiger
parents, had high hopes and strict expectations for their children. In particular, they had hoped
their son would perform well academically, give up his musical and singing aspirations, and
embark on a career in medicine or law. After attending Parramatta Marist High School,
Gonzales studied medical science at the University of New South Wales but withdrew after two
years. He then enrolled in law at Macquarie University. Performing poorly in his courses and at
risk of expulsion, Gonzales tried to cover up his failure by falsifying his grades. When this was
revealed by his sister to his parents, they threatened to withdraw certain privileges such as the
use of his prized car, a green Ford Festiva. Gonzales also argued with his mother over a
girlfriend of whom she disapproved, and his family threatened to disinherit him. This, along
with Gonzales's desire to inherit the family's assets, were later established by police as motives
for killing his family.
On 10 July 2001, at about 4:00 p.m., Gonzales left the family's law firm, where he worked part-
time, and headed to the family home. Around 4:30 pm, armed with a baseball bat from his car
and with two kitchen knives from a knife block in the kitchen, he entered Clodine's bedroom
and assaulted her while she was studying. There he compressed her neck while trying to
strangle her, struck her head with the bat at least six times, and then stabbed her multiple times
with the smaller of the knives. The cause of Clodine's death was a combination of the
compression of her neck, blunt force head injuries, and abdominal stab wounds. Gonzales then
waited until Loiva arrived home about 5:30 p.m. After entering the house, Gonzales attacked
her with one of the kitchen knives in the living/dining room. Gonzales inflicted multiple stab
wounds and cuts to her face, neck, chest, and abdomen.
At the funeral of his family, many attendees noticed that Sef did not appear as sad as they
expected. When convicted, Sef did not express remorse for his crimes.

Discuss the evidence for Sef’s behaviour using the Biopsychosocial Model.