Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned after spending 20 years in prison after she was previously convicted of murdering three of her children and the manslaughter of her first child.
The 55-year-old was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children, Patrick, Sarah, and Laura, and the manslaughter of her first child, Caleb.
Category: Domestic Violence
Mom Uses Suicide to Warn Women about Family Court
A New York mom resorted to ending her life last week after fighting long and hard for custody—and failing.
Catherine Kassenoff had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and said she no longer had the endurance to continue to battle both cancer and custody. She completed an assisted suicide in Switzerland in what she described as an “idyllic setting”.
Catherine characterized her years in Family Court as a complete nightmare.
In the last four years of my life I have woken up every day to a nightmare like no other.
Last month Catherine was barred from seeing her girls at all, not even in the supervised visits she had endured for many years. She was not allowed to say goodbye to her children and tell them she loved them. That may have been the breaking point.
Catherine was not about to go out quietly. She wanted her suicide to bring light to the Custody Crisis and make a difference for women struggling to keep and protect their children in Family Court.
Catherine wanted her story to serve as a warning to all women that they will likely face oppression and devastation if the father decides he wants custody. If she—federal prosecutor, counsel to a governor, with plenty of money, education, connections and resources (at least in the beginning)—could lose her children and everything she had, any woman could.
The father has become quite the public pariah thanks to the internet and social media. Thus, in death, if not in life or Family Court, Catherine was able to hold him somewhat accountable for taking her children away and alienating them from her.
Source: (79) Mom Uses Suicide to Warn Women about Family Court
New research reveals harrowing stories of murdered Indigenous women and the failure of police to act
Indigenous women are eight times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be murdered, according to national statistics. Figures compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology show a significant proportion of these are attributable to intimate partner violence.
I conducted a study, published this week, that examined the deaths of 151 Indigenous women and girls from across Australia over a 20-year period beginning in 2000. Almost all of these women and girls were subjected to intimate partner violence, whether at the hands of their husband or de facto spouse (72.2%), boyfriend (15.9%) or ex-partner (5.9%). The offenders were both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
My research also revealed that in almost all of these instances, Indigenous women experiencing intimate partner violence had engaged with police to help them in their situations. However, a lot of women did not receive the support that potentially could have saved their lives.
Of those women whose stories we studied, 61.6% died from blunt force trauma assaults that went on for hours. The offenders used not only their bodies to inflict injury, but also whatever was at their disposal, such as rocks, pieces of concrete, fence palings and pieces of furniture.
The significance of this finding is that it speaks to the possibility of witnesses (other household members, neighbours, passersby) having the opportunity to intervene by calling 000 on behalf of the victim. Certainly there was evidence of this in the cases we examined.
At the time of writing, 106 offenders among the 151 cases have been held accountable through the justice system for the deaths of these women. However, it should be noted not all were convicted of murder or manslaughter.
We know from the case files that 41.7% of the cases we investigated are mothers. Seven of the women were also pregnant at the time of their deaths.
The records also show 25% of these women’s children witnessed violence in the home, potentially including the murder itself. This finding is important, as it reinforces the need for trauma-informed care for children in these situations.
Indigenous women have also been arrested when they have called for help, either through being misidentified as the perpetrator, or due to other matters such as overdue fines.
In one instance, Yamatji woman Tamika Mullally was beaten almost to death by her partner, but police arrested her and her father, who had come to help her. Her baby Charlie was later killed by her partner while she and her father were in police custody.
Our study found there was a consistent practice of non-compliance with police general orders relating to domestic violence. For example, officers were not doing background checks on whether restraining orders were in place to determine the level of risk a victim may be in.
We also found police often did not follow through on victims’ requests for domestic violence orders to protect them. Some officers asked the victim whether they really wanted their partner to go to court, forcing victims to second-guess their own decisions about their safety.
A coroner (name witheld) who conducted 17.9% of the inquests and investigations into the cases in this study reported that in his experience if it was not institutional racism that was confounding the actions of police, “it was lazy policing”.
Source: New research reveals harrowing stories of murdered Indigenous women and the failure of police to act
Very First Custody Crisis Case: Mary Lou 1976
The very first documented Custody Crisis case occurred nearly a half century ago in the mid ‘70’s in the American South. Mary Lou* was a wonderful, loving mother to her only child, Alice. Her story begins when Little Alice is just 5 years-old.
Mary Lou’s story will be the first in a series of historical cases profiled in the coming months, in part to pay tribute to these early, brave victims of the crisis, but also to raise awareness about the history of the issue. It is important to be able to put present cases in the context of the first cases to better understand the nature and cause of the crisis.
Mary Lou’s story begs the question—why did the epidemic of Custody Crisis cases begin in the 1970’s?
At that time, there was a major shift in family power dynamics caused by women gaining the ability to be financially independent and, with it, the power to divorce abusive or otherwise undesirable husbands. At the same time many states and countries began enforcing child support giving men a financial reason for wanting custody.
Mary Lou’s story is told by Louise Armstrong in her seminal book on protective mothers victimized in Family Court: “Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest”. The genesis of the book is custody cases involving sexual abuse, but it extrapolates to all cases with her identification of the crisis as a result of gendered power disparity, i.e. age-old paternal entitlement.
Of course, Mary Lou’s case wasn’t an anomaly. It was just the first in an epidemic of Custody Crisis cases in which judges would discredit, silence, and torment mothers with loss of custody.
12ft | Former foster child wins financial payout from NSW government
Lauren Eslick spent most of her childhood with foster parents whose punishments included hitting her, forcing her to hold a telephone book above her head and locking her in a tent.
Her ward case file from the Department of Communities and Justice shows she was left in a long-term placement from age five to 18 despite the department believing her to be at risk of harm and suitable alternative care being available with her maternal grandparents.
Now Eslick, 27, has received a confidential payout from the state government, which had parental responsibility after removing her from her birth mother because of violence and drug use.
Eslick said she wanted to share her story because many people assume foster children are “bad kids” or told her she should be grateful.
“You can have a family that looks perfect but inside the family it’s horrible and manipulative,” Eslick said. “We looked like this nice little church family … I was sent to a private school.”
The case file, which is more than 1100 pages long, states she was at risk of harm because of “inappropriate methods of discipline” and describes her foster carers as “inexperienced” and her foster mother as “authoritarian”.
The case file also shows the foster carers repeatedly told the department they were not coping and asked for greater support and assistance, which was not always forthcoming.
The file details how various friends, relatives and professionals made several complaints to child protection services about the foster carers’ treatment of Eslick, including concerns about “bruises the size of handprints” when Eslick was nine or 10 years old.
Eslick’s maternal grandparents applied to be kinship carers for Eslick and were assessed as suitable but this did not occur. They later became foster carers for three other children.
The case file shows Eslick as a child and teenager told her caseworkers she wanted to remain with her foster carers. She now says she never saw any single caseworker for more than 12 months and her foster parents coached her on what to say.
As an adult, Eslick spent more than 12 months trying to get her case file from the department but was unsuccessful until she got a lawyer involved. The department agreed to settle out of court almost immediately.
Source: 12ft | Former foster child wins financial payout from NSW government
Study on child abuse and neglect calls for urgent policy reform – Law Society Journal
The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), recently published by the Medical Journal of Australia, is the first nationally representative study on the prevalence of all five forms of child maltreatment and a world-first examination of the resulting long-term health and social impacts over the course of an individual’s lifetime.
Let the ACMS findings sink in:
- 39.6 per cent of Australians have been exposed to domestic violence as children
- 32 per cent have been physically abused,
- 30.9 per cent have been emotionally abused
- 28.5 per cent have been sexually abused
- 8.9 per cent have experienced neglect
- the occurrence of more than one type of child maltreatment is common, affecting 2 in 5 Australians.
The ACMS also assessed the associated impact of maltreatment on Australians and found an increase in reliance on health services and professionals. Australians who were abused or neglected were:
- almost 3 times as likely to develop a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety or PTSD
- 2 times more likely to smoke
- 6 times more likely to depend on cannabis
- 4 times more likely to have self-harmed in the past year.
In all states and territories, it is legal for parents or carers to punish their children through reasonable physical force, with the intention of causing pain or discomfort. This can include smacking, pinching and even washing a child’s mouth out with soap. The right for parents to use physical punishment is established in some state and territory legislation, while other jurisdictions, such as in Victoria and the ACT, provide common law defences.
Australia’s legislation lags behind 65 countries that have made corporal punishment illegal. It is also inconsistent with international human rights guidelines to end all forms of violence against children, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Committee on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory.
Source: Study on child abuse and neglect calls for urgent policy reform – Law Society Journal
NSW women and men will be able to check partner’s violence history online with disclosure scheme – ABC News
The proposed extension of a scheme by the NSW government will allow women and men across the state to check if their partner has a history of domestic violence.
Key points:
- Men or women will be able to call a hotline or access an online portal for information
- Privacy controls would be put in place to avoid people making malicious applications
- An earlier trial received mixed reviews with a low uptake
Higher unemployment and less income: how domestic violence costs women financially
Women in abusive relationships are more likely to be unemployed and earn less money than women with non-abusive partners.
That’s among the key findings confirmed by a landmark international study by researchers from England, America and Finland, which charted the economic impact abusive relationships have on women.
Economic abuse is more common than many realise. A recent online survey of 15,000 women in Australia found 11% had experienced coercive control.
Source: Higher unemployment and less income: how domestic violence costs women financially
Safe Parents Japan – Letter to MFA
To whom it may concern at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
. . .
Safe Parents Japan, a group of domestic violence and abuse survivors hereby submit this report. Recently, there were reports on the Australian television program 60 Minutes Australia and the daily newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald that contained significant factual errors about our country that would harm our country’s reputation. . . .
There is no such fact as “child abduction is legal in Japan.” Spreading fake news internationally and calling it “crazy” significantly damages Japan’s reputation. . . .
According to data submitted to the Legislative Council of the Ministry of Justice, the No.1 reason for a parent to leave home with their children is to “protect the children.”. . .
Parental authority is decided based on objective evidence (Medical record, etc.). They assess who has been the main caretaker and who created a secure attachment with the child by evaluating their family life from the point before the child was born to the custodial situation of today. The judgments are made on a case-by-case basis considering various aspects of the family. . .
It is inappropriate to attribute the problem of “82 Australian children” to Japan’s sole parental authority system. For example, the Australian father shown in the program, who seems to be supported by the Australian government, has been arrested in Japan for illegally entering his in-
laws’ home. They are fraudulently blaming Japan’s legal system while the real problem seems to lie in the perpetrator himself. The Australian government should be alerted that they are in fact supporting the perpetrator based on a significant misunderstanding. . ..
(54) “Everybody Knows”: New Book by Doctor Who’s on Trial for Hiding Kids from Rapist Fathers
An Australian doctor is going on trial in a few weeks, charged with serious felonies, facing 30 years in prison—all because he helped hide children after Family Court judges gave custody to the rapist fathers.
Dr. W. Russell Pridgeon, in anticipation of the rigged trial against both him and his friend, Patrick O’Dea, has just published his aptly titled book “Everybody Knows”. It tells the true story of how everybody knows that the children whom many people helped hide were (and likely still are) being sexually abused by their fathers; but instead of protecting the children and prosecuting the perpetrators, they are persecuting and prosecuting the protectors.
Australian Federal Police hunted down Dr. Pridgeon and the other protectors with a vengeance. They named the investigation “Operation Noetic”, which is a term creepily associated with freemasonry. It became one of the largest investigations in its history. On the other hand, they did zero investigation of the child rapists.
Federal Prosecutors followed up by conducting a long and winding, five-year malicious prosecution designed to bankrupt and psychologically devastate the defendants. Russ and Patrick are now broke and representing themselves.
Source: (54) “Everybody Knows”: New Book by Doctor Who’s on Trial for Hiding Kids from Rapist Fathers