An ice-addict father who admitted killing his 22-month-old son after leaving the boy alone to die on a park bench has been jailed for 12 years.
Shane Arthur Simpson pleaded guilty on Monday to the manslaughter of his son Baden Bond, who was left to die near the Logan River in May 2007.
When handing down his sentence on Thursday, Justice Peter Applegarth said the offending was a ‘gross negligence of an extreme kind,’ ABC News reported.
Baden’s father Shane Arthur Simpson pleaded guilty to manslaughter after abandoning his son Baden in a park
Simpson told police he had sat and talked to the baby for 15-30 minutes before apologising and leaving his son on a bench without ever turning back. Pictured the park believed to be where Simpson left his son
Justice Applegarth said Simpson, who is a long-term drug addict, simply left Baden at the boat ramp, south of Brisbane, before going home and getting on with life.
‘You practically invited a tragic end to his life,’ Justice Applegarth said.
The judge said there was no suggestion that Simpson was high at the time, and added the offending wasn’t a ‘spur of the moment’ decision.
He alleged Simpson didn’t randomly abandon the infant, but rather he planned to leave the child at the waterside location.
‘You had ample time to reflect on your actions and the high risk that Baden would die before anyone found him,’ he said.
Justice Applegarth concluded by describing how Baden’s remaining life would have been ‘full of fear’.
The sentencing comes after the toddler’s mother, Dina Colleen Bond, pleaded guilty to two counts of being an accessory to his manslaughter in Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday.
Baden’s body has never been found, and the cause of death is unknown.
The grandmother of 22-month-old boy Baden Bond (front, right) and other relatives leave the Supreme in Brisbane
Simpson previously told the court on Monday he abandoned the child at the boat ramp near the Logan River because he was ‘tired of caring for him’.
In his final moments with the child, Simpson said he sat with his son on a park bench for 15-30 minutes and said sorry.
Then, without turning back once, he drove away.
The court heard Simpson had told police before he left, his son had looked at him ‘like he knew what was going to happen’, The Courier Mail reported.
The 22-month-old (pictured) was found in a dirty cot before he disappeared in 2007, and Simpson admitted he was ‘fried’ on drugs when he abandoned him
‘Just his face, if anything, I just went though with it then and drove away,’ he had said after his arrest.
‘I didn’t even look back in the rear-vision mirror… I’ve had to live with this for 10 years… the look in his eyes I still see, you know.’
Bond was charged with accessory to manslaughter for her efforts in helping to conceal the child’s death.
Baby Baden and his siblings were taken into government care after he was born with methamphetamine in his system.
Simpson (pictured) and Bond were not arrested until 2017 over the death of their son
During the course of the trial, the court heard how Simpson and Bond called their son ‘the devil’s child’, and would leave him in a locked bedroom with windows that were painted black.
His nappies were reportedly often left unchanged and visitors were discouraged from going into his room.
His mother and father are believed to have blamed the infant for their troubles with their other children, all of whom returned to the family home a year later.
Simpson had called him a ‘little c***’, a ‘dog f*****’ and was ‘nothing but trouble’.
In 2016, when Simpson finally admitted to police he’d abandoned the toddler, he said Baden was difficult and ‘everything just got too much’.
He said he was ‘fried off my head’ at the time from taking ice.
In a devastating twist, the parents did not face any criminal charges for 10 years.
Baby Baden was last seen in March 2007, but not reported missing until June 2015.
His parents were charged in March 2017 after an extensive investigation found no record of Baden attending any school or medical centre in the past 10 years.
The parents had continually lied about baby Baden’s whereabouts, claiming he was either in foster care, or staying with his relatives.
In the middle of the night, about three months after Simpson left Baden on the bench, the couple moved out of their home on Wagawn Street in Woodridge, south of Brisbane.
They told nobody, and did not contact their family again for a year.
The family moved out of their home in Woodridge in the middle of the night three months after Baden was abandoned in the park