News in 5: Chris Watts on suicide watch; Bedford murderer described as 'dotting father'; Drug panel created after festival deaths.

-With AAP

1. ‘Killer dad’ Chris Watts is ‘depressed’ and ‘despondent’ while being monitored closely in jail.

The dad accused of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters is reportedly on suicide watch in jail.

Chris Watts, 33, has been in Colorado’s Weld County Jail for more than a month and the severity of his actions have sunk in.

A source who has spoken to Watts told PEOPLE he’s not doing well.

“The gravity of the situation has hit him like a ton of bricks. Depression is setting in, and he’s despondent.”

A source at the jail confirmed Watts is under “close watch protocol” – otherwise known as suicide watch.

Guards must check on Watts every 10-15 minutes to ensure his well-being and must make visual contact with him. Watts is also not allowed the same privileges as other people at the jail, including no access to weights, reading material and television.

He is physically searched several times a day and each day his cell is inspected for contraband.

He can only leave his cell for one hour each day, where he is taken to a small room to shower and make phone calls. No other prisoner can be in this room at the same time.

Watts was arrested on August 15, just hours before police announced they’d discovered the bodies of his wife, 34-year-old Shan’annToday’s news – for you. and daughters, four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste, on a property owned by the Colorado man’s former employer, Anadarko Petroleum.

The girls had been submerged in crude oil vats, while their mother, who was 15 weeks pregnant, had been buried in a shallow grave nearby.

Watts claims that roughly two hours after Shan’ann returned from her work trip on August 13, he informed her he wanted a separation.

He reportedly claimed he went downstairs for a short period of time, and when he returned to his bedroom he saw on the baby monitor that his wife, who was 15 weeks pregnant, was “actively strangling” their youngest daughter. Their eldest was already “sprawled” and “blue”.

Watts alleged he then “went into a rage and ultimately strangled Shan’ann to death”, before loading “all three bodies onto the back seat of his work truck” and transporting them to the oil site where they remained for four days.

Authorities have dismissed his account and Watts has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

2. How Bedford murderer Anthony Harvey went from “doting father” to mass killer.

How Perth dad Anthony Harvey went on to ‘kill his family’ in the crime that shocked Australia https://t.co/thHlLNvXGR pic.twitter.com/RtIiaYUEMY

— Wilson Jacob (@wilsonjmashaka) September 18, 2018

Perth father Anthony Harvey allegedly used a blunt instrument and knives to murder his three young daughters, their mother and grandmother and then stayed in the house with their bodies for days before heading north to turn himself in.

The bodies of Mara Lee Harvey, 41, her three-year-old daughter Charlotte, two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix and their grandmother Beverley Ann Quinn, 73, were found inside the Bedford home on Sunday.

It is alleged Harvey, 24, killed his wife and children on September 3, then killed his mother-in-law the next morning when she came to visit.

It happened the day after the family had celebrated Father’s Day in the backyard and just hours after allegedly killing his mother-in-law, Harvey went off to work mowing lawns.

Neighbours of the family recall hearing the Harvey’s playing in the backyard on Father’s Day.

The Daily Mail reports neighbours Richard Fairbrother and Rebecca Della said Harvey was a “doting father” who always had a smile on his face when they handed back a soccer ball kicked over the fence.

“I went over to chat with them a few times, most recently last month, and they always seemed very close and were always together,” Fairbrother said.

Della claimed she never saw any signs of tension between the couple and said they had seemed “happy and cheerful” just the week before.

Now, floral tributes, teddy bears and cards pile up outside the Harvey’s house.

Almost $30,000 has been raised on a GoFundMe page to help Mara Harvey’s only sister Taryn Tottman pay for the funeral costs of her five family members.

3. Drug panel created following two deaths at Defqon.1 music festival.

An expert panel has been created to advise the NSW government on drug-related deaths.https://t.co/8mc91LJD6b

— SBS News (@SBSNews) September 18, 2018

NSW will have three top experts put their heads together to find solutions to drug deaths at festivals after two lives were cut short – but pill testing will remain off the table.

The three-person panel will consist of the NSW police commissioner, the state’s chief medical officer and the chair of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.

It comes days after two people in their early 20s died, three more revellers were taken to hospital in a critical condition and hundreds of others fell ill at the weekend’s Defqon.1 music festival in Penrith.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the panel would consider harsher penalties for drug dealers and safety precautions for festival organisers but she resisted calls from political, social and medical circles to consider pill testing.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said the government’s stubbornness made her “blood boil” because lives could be saved.

“Death after tragic death, the NSW government sits there with your fingers in your ears, terrified of being accused of being ‘soft on drugs’,” she said in a statement on Monday.

“The war on drugs has comprehensively failed.”

4. Prime Minister Scott Morrison denies bullying of female MPs.

A second Liberal MP has declared she’s quitting over bullying.

But Scott Morrison insists there are no bullies in his party.https://t.co/RpzsBuzoyn

— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) September 18, 2018

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no intimidation in the federal Liberals as the latest female MP to walk out points the finger at her alleged bully in her party’s state branch.

Federal MP Ann Sudmalis announced earlier this week she would not recontest the seat of Gilmore, which she holds with a knife-edge 0.7 per cent margin.

She is the latest to join an exodus of female MPs who have resigned citing bullying or internal issues in the Liberal party.

On Monday, she used parliamentary privilege to name NSW Liberal state MP Gareth Ward for his “narcissistic revenge” against her.

Mr Ward, on Tuesday, said Ms Sudmalis needed to be careful not to confuse political disagreements with bullying.

Mr Morrison admitted state members of parliament “stick their nose into the business” of their federal counterparts and moved to establish an internal process to deal with complaints.

But he assured the public there was no bullying among his own party members.

5. Umpire who gave Nick Kyrgios a pep talk is suspended.

After his over-the-top pep talk to Nick Kyrgios, chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani is suspended for two tournaments without pay by the ATP Tour. Our #NYT exclusive https://t.co/7Sz7u4p1Rk

— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) September 18, 2018

The Swedish umpire who gave a pep talk to Nick Kyrgios during a US Open match this year has been suspended without pay for two weeks, the ATP Tour have announced.

Mohamed Lahyani got down from his chair to offer some words of encouragement to the Australian No.1, who was a set and a break down to Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert during a second-round clash in New York nearly three weeks ago.

The Swede gestured and pleaded with Kyrgios – who has been fined by the ATP in the past for lack of effort – telling him “I want to help you” and “I’ve seen your matches: you’re great for tennis … I know this is not you.”

Kyrgios’s level of play rose dramatically after the bizarre incident and he went on to win the match in four sets.

An internal ATP review decided Lahyani’s actions were deemed to have compromised the impartiality required of an official.

“Mohamed is a world-class and highly-respected official. However, his actions during the match crossed a line that compromised his own impartiality as a chair umpire,” Gayle David Bradshaw, the ATP’s Executive Vice President of Rules & Competition, said in a statement.

“Although well-intended, his actions were regrettable and cannot go without disciplinary action on our own Tour. We know that he will learn from this experience and we look forward to welcoming him back in October.”

Lahyani, who was next scheduled to work at the China Open and Shanghai Masters, will return to the umpire’s chair during the October 15-21 at the Stockholm Open.

While the incident took place at a tournament that falls under the jurisdiction of the US Tennis Association, it was still subject to ATP disciplinary action due to Lahyani’s position as full-time ATP employee.