A family whose 10-year-old daughter was butchered by a disturbed teenage girl has launched a campaign to change the law on the third anniversary of her tragic death.
They say parents like them are denied vital financial support despite being victims of ‘unspeakable tragedy’ which left them ‘crushed to the core’ and struggling to get by.
NSW victim support payments to parents of murdered children have stayed locked at 2013’s level of $7500, with no extra support for loss of income while they grieve.
Now the grief-stricken family is demanding the rules are reviewed and updated.
Their daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was savagely killed by a mentally-ill 14-year-old girl at a Gunnedah farmhouse in north-west NSW on July 8, 2020.
The disturbed teenager (pictured after her arrest) who savagely killed a 10-year-old girl warned she was set to go on a murderous rampage in a series of terrifying texts
The teenager, now aged 17, killed the 10-year-old (pictured) at a farmhouse in Gunnedah, northern NSW, on July 8, 2020
The NSW Supreme Court found in November 2021 that the teenage killer, who also can’t be named for legal reasons, was not criminally responsible for the attack.
Graphic details of the killing were so gruesome the judge has banned media outlets from revealing them for the next 20 years.
Just three years later though, the family has been told the killer, now 17, is set for day release while they have been cut off from state support.
Daily Mail Australia last month revealed the family’s anguish that the killer is set to taste freedom just three years after the brutal attack.
‘It’s utterly devastating,’ the child’s heartbroken mother admitted. ‘The system is so messed up. There’s no justice to be had.
‘When it’s your own child and the horrific nature of the crime and less then three years later… day release?
‘It’s devastating to think that’s all my daughter’s life was worth.’
Now they have launched a petition at change.org to reform victim support payments to help parents like them in the future, even if it will not apply to them.
They claim the NSW State Government changed the rules in 2018 to cut the compensation paid to families of victims of serious crime from $15,000 to $7,500.
They also allege the state government ended loss-of-income support of up to $20,000 for traumatised parents of murdered children, despite the devastating impact on their lives.
However NSW Victim Services insist there were no changes made to monetary amounts under the scheme in 2018, but admitted they had remained the same for a decade.
‘Since 2013, parents of child homicide victims who are eligible receive a recognition payment of $7,500,’ said a spokesman.
‘The only persons eligible for a $15,000 recognition payment as a family member of the a homicide victim are those that are financially dependent, or were under 18 at the time their parent was murdered.
‘Family of victims, regardless of the circumstances, are not eligible for financial assistance for loss of income. This did not change in 2018.’
The family’s petition has gained the support of 15,000 signatures despite court-ordered restrictions which prevent the media from linking to it.
‘This heinous crime crushed us to the core,’ write the shattered parents, whose heartfelt campaign has been backed by Advocacy Australia.
‘We know that nothing we can ever do will bring our little girl back to us, but in her memory, we hope to help other parents of murdered children.
‘The system fails to recognise the psychological trauma of losing a child to murder, including PTSD.
‘Losing a child to murder is an unspeakable tragedy that has long-lasting traumatic effects on a parent’s mental health resulting in an inability to function or return to work in a functioning capacity, if at all.
‘If parents of murdered children are to survive their horrific trauma, we need the NSW Government to make changes.’
The girl’s parents still live with the long-term impact of the barbaric attack that robbed them of their young daughter.
‘Something bad is going to happen’
In the weeks leading up to the deadly attack, the twisted killer tried to tell her parents she ‘thought about killing people all the time’.
In texts the night before the killing, revealed in court documents, she admitted to her friend: ‘I’m not okay. I can’t do it any more. I think I’m going crazy.
‘I don’t know what to do. I seriously can’t take it any longer. I’m not talking to my parents – they are the cause of it.
‘Something bad is going to happen and it’s going to be irreversible.’
Court documents revealed the day before the killing, the teen boasted to a school friend that she had been standing over her sleeping parents holding a ‘big a** knife’, ready to stab her father to death.
The former animal lover had previously began killing and mutilating chickens every day, using knives she had been collecting and nicknaming each one.
In chilling late night messages to the friend, the teen – a former star pupil at school – warned she was on a mission to kill, but was frustrated that no-one believed her.
Her friend begged the soon-to-be killer not to follow through on the threats – but she refused, saying: ‘I don’t like to lie about promises and won’t make them if I don’t mean them.
‘I want to kill dad, torture mum and stab [my sister] countless times then sprawl their corpse out onto the kitchen table.’
She added: ‘Sorry, I have to go,’ according to the court documents.
Tomahawk named Tommy
The following morning, between 6.30am and 7am, the teenager armed herself with a tomahawk she had nicknamed Tommy, which her father had given her two weeks earlier.
She then tracked down her 10-year-old victim and killed her before dragging the body to her 12-year-old sister’s room. The teen then put on a backpack and walked out of the house.
A teenager who was 14 when she killed a 10-year-old girl says she was spurred on by voices inside her head (pictured, footage of an interview held hours later at Gunnedah Police Station)
Just a few hours after these menacing texts, the teenager killed her 10-year-old victim
A psychiatric report later found the girl was suffering from untreated schizophrenia which included auditory hallucinations coaxing her to kill, and delusions her life and experiences were not real.
A short no-jury trial, overseen by Acting Justice Carolyn Simpson, found the girl was suffering from severe mental illness and had difficulty separating ‘dreams from reality’.
The teenager was ordered to remain in detention under supervision, with her condition reviewed by the Mental Health Tribunal until deemed fit for release.
Killer set for day release
The victim’s family say they have been told their daughter’s killer is ‘being granted day leave and will probably be out in the next couple of years’.
In a series of posts on Reddit, which have since been deleted, the girl’s mother unleashed her anger at the system which she said had made her daughter ‘invisible’.
‘Less then three years rehabilitation is not enough for taking a child’s life,’ she wrote.
‘It’s so unjust and is causing us so much further distress to think that’s all our daughter’s life is worth.
‘I can’t bring my 10 year old daughter back to life, my life has been ruined. My family’s life has been ruined.
‘I can’t even show a picture of her face or use her name. She’s been made invisible by the legal system.’
The publishing restrictions imposed on the case are among the strictest ever seen in Australia, admitted one legal expert.
Aside from the normal ban on naming the under-age killer, the judge also banned details of the victim’s identity, injuries and connection to her killer from being revealed for 20 years.
‘I’m not allowed to even use my daughter’s picture or name to tell her story,’ said the mother. ‘By law all youths who commit crimes have their identities protected.
‘But my daughter who is the victim has a 20-year suppression on her name and image being made public.
‘This is not usual and further victimises her, because her story cannot be told in a way that identifies her.
When the teenager was younger, and loved her snake, three cats, three dogs and fish, there were no sign of the horrors in her tormented mind (pictured, police at the scene of the killing)
The killer used her knives to start butchering the family’s chickens, confessing to her father that she had taken a skewer to one of them ‘as she wanted to see what was inside’ (pictured, police search a paddock near the scene of the killing)
The victim’s mother unleashed her fury and frustration at the legal system in a series of posts on Reddit which were later deleted (pictured)
‘I feel like there’s no justice for my daughter and us as the family victims. Only endless support for [the killer’s] treatment and “rehabilitation”.
‘The system gives most of its resources to perpetrators and the support victims get is ridiculously insulting in comparison.’
Parents silenced on release
She said the family had been denied any input into the decision on releasing the killer back into the community.
‘It’s completely in the hands of the mental health tribunal,’ she said. ‘We have no power and no say.
‘I think given the horrific, serious nature of her act in murdering my daughter, less than three years for rehabilitation and treatment is not enough to be allowed to access the community.
‘The fact she’ll likely be living in the community in another couple of years is deeply distressing to us, her family victims.
‘She’s granted these rights and the right my murdered daughter has to be visible and named in the telling of her story has been taken away for 20 years!’
The farming community of Gunnedah in north-western NSW was shocked by the incident
She said the pain of losing her daughter had not eased in the three years since the horrific attack.
‘There’s no healthy way to look at anything when your daughter has been horrifically murdered,’ she said.
‘Please tell me what way I can twist this horrific experience into something positive?
‘We have been devastated by what happened and devastated at the news of day release so short after.
‘That’s all my daughter’s life seems worth in the legal system.’
NSW Youth Justice said it was ‘inappropriate’ to comment on the case.
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