Murder victim Angus Beaumont remembered as clever, curious and kind

The parents of teenage murder victim Angus Beaumont have remembered their beloved son as clever, curious and kind.

At only 15 years of age, Angus Beaumont towered over his parents Ben and Michelle.

The gentle giant loved to read and cook. He was a clever and curious boy who excelled at school and loved arts and crafts. He started reading clubs, he helped out working in his father’s mower shop and one day he wanted to travel the world.

After his death, even the kids who had bullied him at school and snapped his favourite colouring pencils in half had called his parents to apologise, to say what a lovely boy he’d been – that he always stood up for others.

Ben Beaumont and Michelle Liddle are mourning son Angus Beaumont. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“That was the sort of kid he was,” mother Michelle Liddle says.

“It’s such a testament to the sort of person he was that even his bullies reached out. He was friends with everyone and an enemy to no one.”

It’s been almost three years since Angus’ young life was cut short when he was stabbed in the heart by two 14-year-old thugs who were trying to rob his friend in a Redcliffe park.

The remorseless killers who high-fived as they fled the scene both already had appalling criminal histories by the time they set their sights on Angus. They’d faced the courts dozens of times and again and again they were allowed to walk free.

Angus Beaumont

Angus Beaumont (left)

Unlike his killers, Angus had never been in trouble with the law. He was a good boy, his mum says.

He’d only just started being allowed to go out on his own and the night he died, he had planned to meet up with friends to have dinner at the outdoor food trucks.

“When your child walks out the door you worry as a parent but you never imagine that they won’t come home,” a tearful Ms Liddle bravely told the court during the sentencing of her son’s killers.

“But on Friday the 13th of March 2020 that’s exactly what happened when you both chose to take my son’s life.”

Last week the two boys, who cannot be identified, were sentenced in the Brisbane Supreme Court after they were found guilty of Angus’ murder at trial earlier this year.

But the sentence was of little comfort to his grieving family. Both teens, now aged 16 and 17 will be back on the streets before their 21st birthdays. A milestone Angus will never get to celebrate.

There are many milestones Angus and his family have been robbed of.

Angus Beaumont as an infant

There are the big things of course – like celebrating Christmases, finishing high school, travelling the world, getting married and having children of his own. He would have been turning 18 in four weeks.

But there are also the seemingly small things, hundreds of reminders every single day.

“We think about him constantly,” Ms Liddle said.

“It’s heartbreaking. Even on the back deck, I was painting the back wall but couldn’t reach the top corner and Angus was supposed to finish off the little corner for me and it’s still there undone.”

Then there’s the food. Angus loved to cook. Curries and quiches, burgers and sushi. He loved finding new recipes and testing them out in the kitchen. His mum is still having to throw away unused groceries, still not used to the absence of her growing boy who would attack the fridge like a “piranha” when she got home from the supermarket.

“This kid loved his food so much had own special chopsticks in a case,” Ms Liddle says.

“It’s so unfair. He was going to be a beautiful young man and it just breaks my heart every day.

“It’s like someone has taken the light out of the world.”

Angus Beaumont as a teenager

Since losing their boy, Ben and Michelle have been campaigning for an overhaul to the state’s juvenile justice laws which they say are letting the community down and allowing violent young offenders to make a mockery of the system.

It hasn’t been an easy road, having to relive their trauma so publicly, or live with the sickening threats and taunts from the family and friends of the two boys who killed their son. Even on the day of the murder sentence they were subject to mockery and abuse from a man linked to one of the killers who threatened Mr Beaumont outside court and challenged him to a fight.

But they won’t give up, determined to ensure another family doesn’t experience the same anguish.

“I do think Angus would be proud,” Ms Liddle says of their efforts.

“Heaven forbid if he was here and something happened to us he would have been the one organising everything.

“Something has to change. This system is broken. We want something positive to come out of this nightmare.”

View and sign the petition for Angus’ Legislation here