John Edwards killed his children Jennifer and Jack in 2018.
Jack and Jennifer Edwards had long feared their violent and unpredictable father.
They died cowering in fear, Jack throwing his body over his younger sister in an attempt to protect her, when John Edwards shot them with a legally owned and acquired Glock pistol at their West Pennant Hills home in north-west Sydney in 2018.
Jack, 15, had a habit of sleeping with a cricket bat while Jennifer, 13, vowed never to turn her back on her father.
Handing down her findings into their deaths on Wednesday, NSW Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan said they should not be categorised as tragedies.
To do so would suggest nothing could have been done to change the outcome.
The reality was the children, and their mother Olga, who took her own life six months after her children’s murder, were failed by multiple agencies.
They told police, psychologists and others within the family law system of multiple experiences of violence and abuse perpetrated by Edwards.
Yet despite the long documented history of violence that preceded him, he was granted firearms licences and lawfully purchased guns, including the ones he used to kill his children and himself.
“The evidence before this court plainly reveals that the deaths of Jack and Jennifer Edwards were preventable,” O’Sullivan said in her concluding remarks.
Her scathing final report, following three weeks of harrowing evidence in September last year, made 24 wide-ranging recommendations.
Central to the changes she has called for are improvements to the state’s firearms registry where licences were once granted among widespread “confusion and incompetence”.
Gun reform advocates say the recommendations are a chance to plug holes in the state’s gun laws and should be fully implemented.
But some think they need to go further.
Failed by multiple agencies
Just a year before Edwards was granted multiple gun licences in 2017, Olga had gone to the police and laid out a series of violent allegations against her husband.
She told an officer how Edwards had in 2015 punched and kicked Jack, then 13, for playing with his iPod without permission.
Olga told the officer Edwards in 2015 had slapped Jennifer, then 10, across the face for not sleeping.
Flowers and candles outside the house where Jack and Jennifer Edwards were murdered by their father, John Edwards in 2018.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The officer noted in the internal system at the time she believed it may have been an attempt by Olga to influence family court and divorce proceedings, and the allegations were not recorded as alleged assaults.
In February 2017, Olga again attended the police station to report Edwards stalking her after he attended her regular yoga class.
They had at the time been separated for almost a year.
Police called Edwards and asked him why he was at the class - he claimed Olga was actually stalking him.
No further investigations were carried out.
In her recommendations, O’Sullivan said general duties police officers should be given mandatory training in responding to domestic violence allegations.
She said there should be regular audits of officers’ compliance with the standard operating procedures to respond to domestic violence complaints.
Widespread ‘confusion and incompetence’
O’Sullivan said it was clear Edwards should never have been granted a firearms licence under the act.
She was scathing about the training offered to staff at the NSW Firearms Registry, labelling it “grossly inadequate” at the time Edwards was granted his licences.
Officers who gave evidence to the inquest conceded it should have been an easy decision to come to the conclusion Edwards was not a “fit and proper person” to hold a licence.
Yet he was able to buy multiple deadly weapons and receive multiple gun licences.
Five months after her children were shot dead by their father, Olga Edwards took her own life.Credit: LinkedIn
There were 18 events on Edwards’ record on a central police database accessible to registry staff who helped decide the outcome. Fifteen of those incidents related to domestic violence, stalking, or apprehended violence orders.
However the employee did not review the incidents because she did not think it was part of her role, according to O’Sullivan’s final report.
She also failed to investigate why Edwards was refused a licence in 2010 and was therefore unaware he likely provided misleading information at the time.
As a result, Edwards was given the all-clear to apply for a commissioner’s permit, and was later granted a pistol and rifle licence.
O’Sullivan said up until late 2018, firearm licences were granted by the registry in circumstances of widespread “confusion and incompetence”.
“The evidence also illustrated that the majority of the witnesses who were involved in the adjudication of John Edwards’ licences (at least) did not have a basic understanding of the nature of the adjudication task actually involved and the statutory tests underpinning that task,” she said in her findings.
In order to complete the required training to own and use a gun, Edwards needed to be accepted in a shooting club.
Hornsby RSL Rifle Club and Ku-Ring-Gai Pistol Club both refused Edwards membership, concerned about his demanding behaviour.
This wasn’t passed on to St Mary’s Pistol Club, where he was granted membership and stored his guns.
The coroner made no adverse findings against the club for this decision.
In her recommendations, O’Sullivan said gun clubs should be required to inform the gun registry if they have refused a person membership and the reasons for the refusal.
Anyone engaged in family law proceedings should also be required to disclose that information to authorities when applying for a firearm under her recommendations.
O’Sullivan recommended the registry investigate if gun clubs should be given the power to refuse to allow someone to remove stored firearms if the club thinks the person could pose a risk.
Gun control advocate Michelle Fernando, whose father was killed with a firearm from a pistol club, was disappointed some of the coroner’s recommendations fell short of what counsel assisting the inquiry had called for.
NSW laws were changed in 2008 to allow people aged 12 or older to enter a gun club and shoot without a licence.
They no longer needed to wait 28 days for a background check.
Counsel assisting the inquest had proposed unlicensed shooting in pistol clubs be revoked - something Fernando had lobbied for since the death of her father - after Edwards was allowed to shoot unlicensed in late 2016 at a rifle club.
“Unfortunately, the Coroner did not make this recommendation,” Fernando says.
Instead, O’Sullivan proposed an alternative scheme that would give the firearms registry oversight over the verification of casual shooter’s information.
“The problem is that any form of unlicensed shooting promotes casual, easy access to firearms and training in their use,” she said.
“There ought to be a rigorous process of vetting before members of the community are given access to firearms.”
Gun Control Australia spokesman Tim Quinn says the coroner’s recommendations, if fully implemented, could close loopholes in the state’s gun control laws.
“The deaths followed a chain of events and unfortunately a lack of training in their registry has meant a falling down of a system that does have a lot of things covered off but there are holes,” he says.
In a statement, NSW Police say it will consider all the coroner’s recommendations.
“Over the past two years, the NSW Police Force has implemented significant changes to systems and procedures in relation to the reporting and supervision of domestic and family violence incidents,” the statement says.
“The regulation of firearms and the welfare of our communities remains a critical issue for the NSW Police Force.”
For support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14; National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732); Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800.
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