This has nothing to do with the Family Court

Pointing the finger at the Family Court over the horrific murders of Jack and Jennifer Edwards, and now the death of their mother Olga, takes blame away from this worthless coward, writes Sherele Moody.

Why are people turning child killer and domestic violence thug John Edwards into a hard-done-by martyr of the Family Court?

On Wednesday, the body of Olga Edwards was found in the home where her son and daughter were murdered five months ago.

There is no doubt that John Edwards — Olga’s former husband and the children’s father — killed 15-year-old Jack and 13-year-old Jennifer.

Edwards shot the siblings on July 5 at their house in West Pennant Hills, NSW.

Police say there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding Olga’s death.

Those close to her said she was “struggling”.

Rosie Batty, whose son was murdered in 2014, said she was supporting Olga.

“I did feel with her a sense of hopelessness,” Ms Batty told a media outlet.

There is no doubt that the deaths of Olga, Jennifer and Jack are devastating and an appalling indictment of the nature of domestic and family violence in our country.

But in the rush to a make sense of this tragedy, many people are using social media to position a killer into a martyr and putting the blame on the Family Court.

“This man was married and divorced three more times... He didn’t kill any of his other children.... This is the Family Courts (sic) with blood on their hands,” read one post.

On the other side of the debate, feminists and women’s rights activitists have blamed the Family Court for not protecting Olga and her children from John Edwards.

But to focus on the Family Court as a factor in this horrific crime is to take away from John Edwards’ responsibility for his own cowardice and cruelty.

MORE FROM SHERELE MOODY: Seven days, six dead women. When will we wake up?

John Edwards was not given access to his children because he was deemed a danger to them. He shot Jack and Jennifer as they cowered from him. Picture: AAP

The Family Court did not make Edwards dupe a gun club into allowing him to apply for, and receive, a gun permit even though he had been initially rejected because of his violent behaviour.

The court did not make the 68-year-old go out and buy two high-powered pistols.

It did not make him spend a year planning the children’s murders, any more than it made him stalk his former wife’s home until he had ascertained the children were alone.

The Family Court did not make him murder Jack and Jennifer as they hugged each other in fear in a bedroom.

The court did not make Edwards commit the ultimate act of cowardice by killing himself.

The court had nothing to do with Edwards’s decision to deprive a loving mother of her children.

Those who say that the Family Court is responsible — even partially — for the deaths of Olga, Jack, Jennifer and John are devaluing the lives of his victims and removing blame from the killer.

Whenever a man involved in a custody dispute kills a mother and/or her children, people shout it’s the “Family Court’s fault”.

It happened when grandfather Peter Miles slaughtered his four grandchildren, his daughter Katrina and his wife Cynda just weeks before Edwards’s murderous rampage.

MORE FROM SHERELE MOODY: Peter Miles was not a “good bloke”

Olga Edwards was found dead in her home on Wednesday.

It happened when Arthur Freeman tossed his four-year-old daughter Darcy off the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne.

It happened when Robert Farquharson drowned his sons in a Victorian dam on Father’s Day in 2005.

Miles killed himself. Freeman and Farquharson are serving lengthy prison terms.

I have documented more than 1600 murders of women and children in Australia and I can categorically tell you that not one of these people was killed by the Family Court or anyone connected to it.

Yes, in some cases there was court involvement between the victims and their killers but this was not the reason for their deaths.

My research shows that the most common thread in familial homicides is controlling abusive violent angry people making the decision to murder.

I acknowledge that Australia’s family law system has many failures including sometimes handing children to abusive parents while denying non-abusive parents access to their kids.

But for all its flaws, the system — including the court, the judges and the lawyers — is not a killer.

In Edwards’s case, he was banned from seeing Jack and Jennifer because he was a danger to them.

His decision to kill the teenagers shows that even though the court sought to protect the children and Olga, in the end it was not effective.

A court’s decision is powerless in the face of someone’s unrelenting desire to destroy another human being and that means the only person responsible for the deaths of Olga, Jennifer and Jack is John Edwards.

Edwards does not deserve our sympathy.

He does not deserve our grief.

He does not deserve to be a martyr.

All Edwards deserves is our contempt.

News Corp journalist Sherele Moody is the recipient of the 2018 BandT Women in Media Social Change Maker Award and has multiple Clarion and Walkley Our Watch journalism excellence awards for her work reducing violence against women and children. She is also the founder of The RED HEART Campaign and the creator of the Femicide Australia Map.

*For 24-hour domestic violence support call the national hotline 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. For mental health support phone LifeLine on 13 1114.