Toddler’s tragic death: Father admits to killing son

A Queensland father has admitted to killing his 22-month-old son, telling police he was “tired” of looking after the boy.

Baden Bond has not been seen since 2007. His parents were arrested in 2017.

BABY Baden Bond was left alone to die on a park bench in Eagleby, south of Brisbane, more than 10 years ago after his heartless ice-addicted father became “tired” of caring for him.

Today, the man who should have been there to protect his son, Shane Simpson, confessed to the manslaughter of the 22-month-old baby in May 2007.

Simpson and his partner, Baden’s mother Dina Colleen Bond, were charged in 2017 after Baden had not been seen for more than 10 years.

Baden's parents Dina Colleen Bond and Shane Arthur Simpson were arrested in 2017. Pictures: Marc Robertson

The father told police he drove away after leaving the defenceless child sitting on the bench only metres from the Logan River and “didn’t even look back”.

The baby’s mother pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and helping the man cover up his actions by lying to friends, family and authorities about what happened to the tiny baby for more than a decade.

The court heard the pair called baby Baden a “devil child”, “evil” and “a little dog f*****”.

Years after leaving Baden in the park, Simpson told friends Child Safety officers had taken the boy and they “didn’t feel like he belonged to us”.

Crown protector Danny Boyle said the man, who was aged 39, at the time of the horrific act, told police “what he did was not murder” but that he left the child alone because he was “too much”.

Simpson claimed he was “fried off my head” on ice.

The court heard he told police after being charged with murder following an investigation by the crime and corruption watchdog that he had planned to leave the baby at Beenleigh but when he saw the location near the boat ramp to the Logan River it looked like a “quiet place”.

He told detectives he sat on a park bench with the boy and talked to him for 15-30 minutes before patting him on the head, saying “sorry” and leaving him alone.

Mr Boyle told the court today the parents didn’t like baby Baden after he was born with drugs in his system.

“Baden was mentally slower and he couldn’t talk,” Simpson told police, saying he couldn’t “really connect” with the boy.

“He said he was just tired of caring for him,” Mr Boyle said.

“He left him there and didn’t even look back.”

Baden Bond was left on a park bench sometime in May 2007.

Mr Boyle described the actions as a “callous abandonment of a two-year-old child”.

“By community standards this is quite a serious offence of criminal negligence,” he said.

The court heard Simpson told police he was “hoping someone would find him and look after him”.

The court heard Simpson told police the boy looked at him “like he knew what was going to happen” before he left him in the park.

“Just his face, if anything, I just went though with it then and drove away,” Simpson told police.

“I didn’t even look back in the revision mirror … I’ve had to live with this for 10 years … the look in his eyes I still see, you know.”

Simpson and Bond will be sentenced later today.