Media
These articles are included because they focus on not only the atrocities that are perpetrated against children but reflect on the 'systems' that both cause and allow it to happen. These articles are also chosen to show clearly that children are at risk from all members of society, their mothers, their fathers and 'friends' of their parents as well as strangers. These reports span a three year period. Yet despite bursts of public outrage, nothing has changed. Until and unless proper measures are in place to determine parental suitability, these stories will be repeated with different children, different names and different times. Each and every one a tragedy and a sad reflection on societal indifference to change and self examination.
2yo 'may have been alive in bag'.
A Sydney court has heard a two-year-old boy, whose mother is to stand trial for murder, may have been alive when he was dumped in a suitcase.
DOCS had deserted murdered children of Pericoe
THE desperate plight of three children found murdered yesterday by their violent father was known to the Department of Community Services which gave up on them.
Just days earlier, the children's father Gary Bell, 44 was released by police on bail after bashing his wife, with the officers notifying the beleaguered department about Jack, 7, Maddie, 5 and Bon, aged just 18 months.
Last night, hours after their tiny bodies and their dead father were found in a car at the family's home at Pericoe on the Far South Coast, DOCS admitted it failed to reach the family and offered the excuse that staff had tried.
Baby girls fighting for lives after bashing
RELATIVES of a young mother whose twin baby girls are fighting for their lives after allegedly being bashed by their father rushed to Sydney last night to support her in a hospital vigil.
The girls remained in a critical condition after both undergoing surgery for massive head injuries, including skull fractures, at Westmead Children's Hospital.
Girl punched to stop her crying: court
A MAN who has admitted to killing a 17-month-old girl told police he punched the child to the stomach to "stop her crying", causing her to vomit, but denied inflicting a fatal head injury. He told detectives during the September 2005 interview, played at his sentencing hearing yesterday, that
the toddler was "a bit wonky" after the fall and he comforted her by holding her and rubbing her on the back, but when she wouldn't stop crying he punched her twice in the stomach, "hard but not hard".
He told police he had been coming down from amphetamines at the time. He said he was fed up because he could not handle the crying, had been raped in jail and his girlfriend was "giving me the run around".
Father held over attack on baby girls
FOUR-MONTH-OLD twin girls are clinging to life following a savage attack allegedly carried out by their father during a temporary access visit at the weekend.
The girls, who were allegedly "shaken, struck or thrown" so severely that they were left with fractured skulls, underwent surgery in Sydney's Westmead hospital yesterday.
Last night, the babies remained in critical condition.
Mother lay down to die beside her dead children
A mother made a bed for her two dead children before lying down to die beside them, her neighbours believe. The 29-year-old woman was found bleeding and semiconscious, tucked into bed beside the bodies of her three-year-old daughter and five-year-old son on Tuesday. The children's 31-year-old father made the horrific discovery when he returned to the family's home at Canley Heights about 6.30pm on Tuesday, police said. A neighbour of the family, who wanted to be known only as Wendy, had followed the distraught father into the house after he had pleaded with her to call an ambulance.
Man charged with sex offences against 13 girls
A man from the New South Wales south coast has been arrested for alleged sexual offences involving 13 girls aged between 12 and 17.
The 40-year-old man from Nowra faces 30 charges, including four counts of sexual assault.
Other charges include aggravated indecent assault, distributing child pornography and grooming a person under 16 for sexual activity.
10 years jail for toddler death
A man jailed for ten years today for the manslaughter of a three-year-old boy started beating the toddler soon after he started a relationship with the boy's mother.
Timothy Leonard Farmer, 30, of Albany was sentenced in the Supreme Court today for the manslaughter of Mason Coughlan.
Farmer pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February after the charge was downgraded from murder.
Justice Eric Heenan said the events which led to Mason's death presented an agonising picture of violence, cruelty and insensitivity towards a young, helpless and terrified child.
Toddler's father on murder charge
The father of three-year-old Perth boy Imran Zilic has been formally charged with his son's murder.
The boy's body was found in a mine shaft near Coober Pedy in South Australia's far north on Friday - after he had been missing for three weeks.
Mum gets life for 'careful, cold' murder of son
A 24-year-old mother has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Supreme Court judge in Brisbane after she was found guilty of murdering her eight-month-old son.
Candaneace Lea Metius was captured on security camera smothering her son, Bray, in Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital in 2004.
Monstrous' dad jailed for baby's death
A father who killed his five-month-old daughter while suffering depression and fits of anger has been jailed for nine years. Justice Bernard Teague said the crimes of David Scott Arney, 25, when viewed objectively, were "monstrous" and deserved stern punishment. He said Arney's wife had experienced enormous grief at the loss of the couple's daughter, Rachael Joy, but she had also expressed strong feelings of love for her husband, and their relationship persisted despite Rachael's death.
Father & Mother accused of killing twin toddlers
A man accused of murdering his 18-month-old twins has been granted bail by a Supreme Court judge in Brisbane. The 28-year-old man, who cannot be named, is accused of two counts of murder, two of torture and two of failing to provide the necessities of life. The charges follow the discovery of the bodies of his 18-month-old twins at his home at Sunnybank Hills last month. The children's mother remains in custody on similar charges.
Hague Convention Ruling
A New Zealand mother whose two children have been ordered to return to Australia, under the Hague Convention, where their father lives, has lost an appeal against the ruling, even though the father has protection order issued against him. The Court of Appeal judgement released yesterday upheld rulings made by the Family Court and the High Court that the two young children must be returned to Australia pending a custody battle.
Mum jailed in custody battle
A MOTHER of two is behind bars for defying court orders in a tug of love fight with her ex partner.In what family law experts said was a rare case, the woman, 31, was given a heartbreaking choice by the Federal Magistrates' Court let the father to see his children or go to jail.
A brother's plea for help.
I am writing to you regarding the imprisonment of my sister. She was imprisoned for four months. The reason for her imprisonment: She refused to be the one who would make the decision to allow her ex partner to hurt her children, and told the judge he would have to make that decision. Because she stood against the judge and told him she would not be the one to allow him unsupervised access to the children, as she was certain it would result in their abuse, the Federal Magistrate angrily sentenced her to prison, and gave full custody of the two children to her ex partner. She has never been convicted of any crime (unlike her ex partner) and is a fine hardworking mother, who wants only the very best for her children. She had been giving them a solid wholesome life with her current husband. How is it possible this person, told only a year or so earlier he was only allowed supervised visitation, now has full custody of the children? Who knows what is happening to them. (Other details not able to be published)
Rougher-than-usual justice
Rape victims can throw up or be brought to tears by the tactics of opposing lawyers, writes Edmund Tadros. Katy's stepfather had sexually abused her from the age of nine until she left home at 21. He was initially found guilty of indecent assault and rape, but the conviction was overturned on appeal and a retrial ordered.
"The defence barrister's style was deplorable," Katy says of the retrial. "He intimidated me the whole time. He would yell at me and come up really close to question me. I was surprised at his level of animosity. He called me every name under the sun. I was just a piece of shit to him."
Katy describes the trials flatly, without emotion. She says she is describing incidents from a past life: the "younger Katy" who was repeatedly sexually assaulted and had to go through the trauma of multiple court cases.
'Adversarial game or access to justice
Recent complaints about the family law system by two expert witnesses involved in a Queensland case resulted in the court's decision to publish the original reasons for judgment. Donna Cooper* discusses the implications of publication and the questions raised about the adversarial nature of family law.
`Never again
Pediatrician David Wood and psychologist Susan Aydon, in Brisbane yesterday, discuss problems with the Family Court. I know a number of medical experts who have adopted this approach -- that they are not prepared to be part of an adversarial game that seeks just to discredit them so the parent with the most aggressive and expensive lawyer wins,'' said Dr Wood, who is also director of paediatric health services at Brisbane's Mater Hospital.
This is a Family Court that should be looking at the best things for children. This is not about the parents. It is about children, and I do not believe the current system cares about, or seeks, that outcome. Dr Wood also questioned lawyers' aggression and tactics in the court.
Court's injustices 'fail kids'
In a suburban Brisbane home, a Christmas tree stands over an array of unopened presents. They bear the names of two children who were supposed to be there at Christmas to share the joy with their mother. But their father refused to obey a Family Court order and has kept the children for three months - and there is nothing the mother can do about it. He knows she cannot afford the cost of lawyers to go back to the court, so he thumbs his nose at it and its orders. Leading child abuse campaigner David Wood cited the case yesterday as one of "dozens" in which he said the Family Court was unwilling or unable to enforce its orders.
Consider the child before the stripper
JUDGES in the Family Court need the wisdom of Solomon. Judge Tim Carmody recently had to choose between leaving an eight-year-old boy with his paternal grandparents, or transferring him to his mother. No one argues that she has been a poor mother. The case had arisen because the grandparents were worried about the mother's partner. He has recently come out of jail where he was serving three years for possessing child pornography…. The judge considered he posed no danger to the boy, but to make doubly sure the mother was not to live with him and when they were together the boy was never to be left alone with him…. At first sight this seems an ultra-careful judgment until you learn that the Family Court has no agency to monitor and enforce its rulings…… If the mother… leaves the boy with her partner, no one will know.
POST SCRIPT: 07.06.2007 The boy from Tasmania, whom the FCA sent to live with mum who works as a stripper and her boyfriend a convicted child porn viewer has been ordered to return to live with his grandparents with mum having contact.
Tighter bail for Aboriginal abusers
ABORIGINAL men accused of sexually molesting children will face tough bail restrictions to prevent them bullying their victims into silence under measures to curtail "endemic and intergenerational" child abuse in NSW indigenous communities.
Every parent's worst nightmare is discovering that their child has been abused.
The statistics suggest that over 90% of child abuse happens in the home and the abuser is often a family member or a friend known to the child victim. The nightmare only gets worse if the abuser is the other parent. The Australian Family Law Council in their 2002Report: ‘Family Law and Child Protection’ identified that if parents are separated then child protection is seen by State child protection agencies as a private matter which must be pursued by a parent through the Family Court with little or no support or involvement from the agencies themselves. This was identified by the Council as a key problem for child protection in Australia as it was recognised that many private litigants in the Family Court lack the financial and legal capabilities to effectively fight to protect their child from abuse through private legal channels.
Fathers may get justice at last
Last year, federal Liberal Party backbenchers responded by setting up a "child access" committee, which has been consistently lobbying the Prime Minister at party meetings. Howard has now spoken out, expressing interest in a proposal known as the "rebuttable presumption of joint custody", which means assuming divorcing parents share equal care of children, unless there are strong reasons against it.
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
Young children dragged kicking and screaming to visit their abusive fathers and mothers threatened with prison if they don't comply ... It's a world away from the image of wronged dads that the campaign group Fathers4Justice implanted in the public mind. Yet, as Decca Aitkenhead discovers, it's the harrowing reality for many families riven by violence or sexual abuse
Jailed mother unrepresented at her hearing
A single mother, jailed for refusing to allow her daughter's father to have contact as ordered by the Family Court, was unrepresented at her trial. The mother, who has been freed and had 18 days of her jail sentence suspended, is now complying with the contact orders. She said yesterday she had asked for her daughter to be psychiatrically assessed to have the question of abuse reviewed.
Goward joins 'blame dad' brigade on custody
Unlike many of her predecessors, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Prue Goward has resisted the temptation to use her position to beat up on men. But recently there are signs the anti-male culture at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission may have got to her. In the past few weeks, Goward has been weighing into the debate on joint custody with remarks uncharacteristically hostile to men.
Murder does not solve the problem.
A couple of days ago, a man was shot in an alley behind his office. He was an attorney, David Robinson. The stories in the news are very quiet about his specialty: family law.
Why he was killed is not completely clear. Another man has been arrested. But I can tell anyone the real reason: the attorney, probably not a bad man -- at least the papers say a great deal about what a good man he was and that he was a family man -- was killed because he ruined someone's family. He probably did nothing illegal. He just did his job. His job was to do anything he could to win for his client. Whatever he had to do, or could think of, he did.
Mother fights to get custody of Son
A desperate Perth mother has turned to the Supreme Court in a bid to regain custody of her seven year old son.
Children's Interests Vs Vested Interests.
Should kids be allowed equal access to their dads after divorce?
The federal government proposed "Shared Parenting Bill", being debated in parliament this week, is supposed to make it easier for children to enjoy the love, care and influence of both their parents and end the trauma and damage of the profitable business of excluding one parent by application to the Family Court.
Clearly conflict is against the best interests of children yet the Family Court and its ancillary practitioners promote conflict as an alternative to equal time parenting.
The hidden horror of child sex abuse
It was not a news flash or a phone call from police that propelled "Emily" into the jagged world of child sex abuse. Like most parents who have to face their worst fears, the source was closer to home."What does your father do to you?" she asked. The boy dropped his pants and fondled his penis. Emily felt physically sick. What followed was a marathon of claims and court appearances. But when it was over, Nathan's father would not be charged. His son, however, would, as a teenager, become suicidal. For more than four years, despite claims of sex abuse, Nathan was handed to his father for access visits.
Mothers abduct children to escape abusive relationships
MOTHERS are responsible for seven out of 10 international parental child abductions, an Australian study has found. And the most common reason for the abduction is flight from an abusive relationship.
The findings of the International Social Service Australia (ISS) report present a sharp contrast to the 1970s, when fathers were overwhelmingly the perpetrators of parental abductions.