Tragic Boy’s De-a-th Sparks Major Investigation After Multiple Child Safety Reports—and a Hor-rifying New Forensic Twist
Warning: graphic content
Authorities received multiple child safety reports before a four-year-old boy was found allegedly murdered by his mother on the NSW Central Coast, as the minister orders a review to examine if the agency responsible could have done more to protect the child.
Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington said reports that the mother was using drugs and had mental health problems would fall under the scope of the review, which will be conducted by retired judge and former president of the NSW Children’s Court Peter Johnstone.
When asked if it was appropriate that the mother retained custody of the boy despite multiple child safety reports, the minister said there were “many complexities” in the case, and the review would aim to answer those questions. The review will also examine if decisions made by the department were adequate, looking at all previous interactions with authorities.
The latest child safety report was made 18 months before the boy was allegedly murdered.
“If there are lessons to be learnt or failures to be identified, they will be. If changes need to be made to better protect children, they will be made,” Washington said.
More than three dozen locals, many pushing prams or carrying babies, attended a vigil at the shuttered Wyong Memorial Olympic Pool on Monday afternoon.
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Families laid flowers, candles, Hot Wheels cars and teddies alongside Spider-Man balloons, as Forever Young, Hallelujah and Over the Rainbow played from portable speakers. As the rain subsided, children splashed in puddles and a rainbow formed over the neighbouring soccer pitch.
Vigil organiser Haylee Dickinson lives in the next street over from where the alleged horrors took place. She said the vigil was to help the community mourn together. “It’s heartbreaking – as a mother, this is so close to home,” she said.
“This tragedy has happened, but it doesn’t mean that it [represents] our community.”
There were no speeches at the vigil. Few locals had met the accused woman and her son, and said they mostly kept to themselves.
Bec Featherstone and her six-year-old son attended another child’s birthday party with the alleged victim and his mother earlier this year. She said the kids played together and said nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “He was a happy, energetic child,” she said. “Just normal, happy kids.”
Police forensic experts will take samples from the mother’s fingernails and mouth for evidence of cannibalism after she allegedly claimed to have consumed part of her son, who was found dead in their Wyong home.
The 32-year-old woman arrived at Wyong police station of her own accord on Saturday afternoon, leading officers to quickly form grave concerns about the safety of a child.
The woman allegedly told police she had eaten part of her son.
Police conducted a welfare check at a unit on Byron Street in Wyong. They found the body of her son with significant arm injuries.
Police were granted approval to carry out a forensic procedure on the woman over the weekend that will allow them to take a buccal swab, a sample of her blood, nail clippings and matter under her fingernails and “to examine the internal mouth contents and forensic material of the suspect”.
Unusually, the order notes it was not to obtain the woman’s DNA, which is the ordinary purpose of such forensic procedures.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation say it’s suspected that the mother had a combination of mental health and drug addiction problems.
This masthead is prohibited from identifying the boy or the mother under laws protecting the identities of child victims of crime.
“I’m prepared to say publicly, at the moment, it was an extremely confronting scene,” Superintendent Chad Gillies of Tuggerah Lakes police said at a press conference on Sunday morning.
