Helen Gerard reveals how child abuse conviction led to her son taking his life
HELEN Gerard, one of SA’s richest women, reveals her torment after a child abuse conviction against her son led him to take his own life on a chilly spring morning in the Adelaide Hills.
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HELEN Gerard, one of South Australia’s richest women, has revealed for the first time her “horrendous year” following the suicide of her only son — just weeks after he was convicted as a paedophile.
A member of the Gerard industrial empire — best known for the Clipsal electrical business — she has revealed to the Sunday Mail how she has struggled after finding her son, Chris “Bushy” Bushnell, dead in his car.
Hearing her dogs barking on the night of Saturday, November 28, 2015, Ms Gerard, now 74, got out of bed to investigate early the next morning.
First she checked the horses on her Hahndorf property — Windamere Horse Haven, which she founded in 2013 as a not-for-profit rescue shelter for abused and abandoned horses.
She discovered nothing out of place. But walking down the gravel driveway she spotted a burnt-out car, still smouldering, and immediately realised it was her son’s Holden Monaro.
“I ran up to the car and realised ‘Oh my God, that’s my son’s body’,” she said.
“I ran away hysterical and rang triple-0. When the police arrived I sobbed my heart out.”
Although the manner of the death was shocking, Ms Gerard said she was not surprised her son, a father of three and talented drummer for several Adelaide bands, had taken his life.
Less than a month earlier, after a five-day trial in the Adelaide District Court, the 47-year-old had been found guilty of the persistent sexual exploitation of a child. The young girl was not a relative but had regular sleepovers at his Mt Barker home.
“That was the time Chris died,” Ms Gerard said about the moment he was found guilty.
“I saw the lights go out of his eyes and the soul leave his body. He just couldn’t face going to jail and he panicked.”
This is a tragic story that has devastated two families — there can be no doubt that Bushnell’s victim and her family are still struggling with the ongoing ramifications of his offending.
But Ms Gerard has made the difficult decision to talk publicly about her torment in the hope it will prompt others who may be struggling to reach out for help.
Three weeks ago, the Sunday Mail published a special report highlighting the prevalence of suicide in South Australia. State Coroner Mark Johns said families and the media should open a conversation to remove the stigma of silence that surrounds suicide and depression.
“I’ve felt some guilt, I’ve felt I let him down,” Ms Gerard admits. “But it’s cathartic to be able to talk about all this and I think it’s important that people do. I want to share what happened in case it can help even one other person who has to deal with these tragedies in life.
“It’s been the most horrendous year, clearing out Chris’s house and selling and buying another property.”
Bushnell was the only child of Ms Gerard and her first husband, Keith Bushnell, a former Channel 9 cameraman who was the first to get footage out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy hit on Christmas Eve, 1974.
He was due back in court for sentencing three days after his death and had been advised by his legal team that the sentence could be six to 10 years.
Judge Gordon Barrett found beyond reasonable doubt that Bushnell committed multiple acts of indecent assault and gross indecency on his victim over a period of several months.
Ms Gerard said her son, who was educated at Prince Alfred College and Concordia College, was “terrified” of jail. “He asked where he would go and was told Mt Gambier or Port Lincoln where the sex criminals go. They don’t go to Yatala because it’s too dangerous,” she said.
“It terrified him and it terrified me — I was thinking he’s going to do something.
“It’s a horrible, horrible thought to know that, in your heart, your child might take their own life — and to live with it hourly knowing that it can happen at any time.”
Prior to sentencing, Bushnell had tried to take his life but was found by his long-term partner Robyn, who had returned home earlier than expected.
He spent a week in the Royal Adelaide Hospital under 24-hour watch. Two weeks later came another indication of his state of mind when he had 10 of his cats put down by a vet.
“Then he rang me on the Friday (two days before his death) and said he was having the final five cats — his most precious — put down,” Ms Gerard said. “I went over and we cried together. He loved his cats and said he couldn’t bear to think they might end up being mistreated while he was in prison. But all the time I was thinking, ‘Chris, are you doing this because you’re preparing yourself for jail or preparing for death’.
“He was still talking and letting me know that he could cope with jail. He said, ‘Everything will be all right, mum … I love you so much’, but Robyn and I weren’t convinced.” Police told Ms Gerard her son posted on Facebook just after midnight on the day he died indicating he would soon be with his “beautiful cats”.
It is assumed he drove to her 4ha property soon after with a large gas cylinder in the car.
The Coroner’s report concluded that Bushnell died from carbon monoxide inhalation.
Ms Gerard takes comfort that her son was dead when the car exploded and that he confided in her just before he died.
“He came to me at the end and that means a lot because we’d been through a lot together,” Ms Gerard said. “He loved me and we were very close and he was always my protector.”
About to become a great-grandmother again, with Bushnell’s eldest child due to give birth for a second time, Ms Gerard says her son’s love of music was inherited from her.
“Music was his salvation from the moment he got a first real drum kit aged 14 when at Concordia,” she said. “He should have travelled the world, he was that good, and it would have been a very different life, but he never did.
“He was a little bit shy — he knew he was good but he didn’t have that go get ’em attitude you need to make it to the top.”
With a wealthy mother, who received a healthy share of the $750 million when her family sold Gerard Industries to French group Schneider Electric in 2003, making his own living was not an imperative.
Ms Gerard said her son’s three children — aged 26, 18 and 15 — are still suffering. She admits she’s not coping either.
“You can’t ever come to terms with it — I’ll hear a song on the radio he loved and I’ll burst into tears,” she said. “It’s just with you all the time. As a parent, it doesn’t matter if the age of your dead child is seven or 47.
“Please remember to hug your loved ones every day because tomorrow you could be saying goodbye forever.”
HELP LINES
■ If you or anyone you know needs mental health support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
■ The SA child abuse report line is 131 478 and is staffed 24 hours a day