John Edwards inquest: Wife let down by gun laws designed to protect her
From the evidence given at the inquest into the murders of Jack and Jennifer Edwards, you have to ask how many other John Edwards are out there: violent narcissists with anger and hatred in their hearts and a gun in their hands, writes Janet Fife-Yeomans
Opinion
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Tragic mum Olga Edwards was let down every step of the way by the system designed to protect vulnerable families like hers.
From the evidence given at the inquest into the murders of Jack and Jennifer Edwards, you have to ask how many other John Edwards are out there: violent narcissists with anger and hatred in their hearts and a gun in their hands.
It’s not as if Edwards slipped through the cracks — the door was wide open. The state’s so-called tough gun laws were anything but. How many John Edwards were given a gun licence by civilian clerks who did not do proper criminal background checks because they were never trained how to before the NSW Firearms Registry was overhauled following this tragedy?
Domestic violence victims who have long complained police don’t take them seriously have not always been believed. They deserve an apology. If they were treated like Olga Edwards, they have every right to be terrified.
At Hornsby Police Station, officers didn’t investigate Olga’s allegations that her estranged husband had assaulted their children or stalked her to her yoga class.
The firearms registry gave him a gun licence despite a 24-year history of violence against his previous wives and children.
No-one other than Edwards can be blamed for what he did. Only he was responsible for shooting dead his children and killing himself in a tragedy that led to Olga committing suicide.
But the so-called “system” is made up of people who are supposed to do their jobs.
People make the rules, they write the policies and people carry them out. There should be no room for mistakes.
But police officers and the clerks in the registry didn’t know what those rules were even if they thought they were doing their best. As the inquest will look at how that happened, a team is only as strong as its weakest link.
One of the seven clerks who between them processed Edwards’ gun application in 2017 was a former cop who has been at the registry since 2001. Mumbling his evidence, he rarely raised his head from the table from where he was giving evidence via AVL. He told the inquest that he couldn’t remember if he had received any training at the registry or not.
At one point, he picked a tissue from the box next to him and began to wipe down the table. For goodness sake. I wanted to give him a shake, make him sit up straight and show some respect for the inquest and the deaths of Jack and Jennifer Edwards.
