Child killer Tim Kosowicz released from Morisset psychiatric ward
It was a crime that shook the nation. And now Tim Kosowicz — who killed five-year-old girl and then sexually interfered with and dumped her body on a western Sydney riverbank — has been released from a Lake Macquarie psych ward after he escaped conviction.
Newcastle
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He admitted to killing a five-year-old girl and then sexually interfering with her tiny body before putting her in a suitcase and dumping it on a riverbank.
But Tim Kosowicz’s mental illness meant he escaped a conviction and jail time for the killing of little Chloe Hoson in a crime that shook the nation.
Instead, he spent his time on the banks of idyllic Lake Macquarie, enjoying trips away from the expanses of Morisset Hospital where he had been held in the forensic psychiatry ward.
And now, less than 16 years after Chloe’s brutal death, Kosowicz has slid back into society without a murmur — and the reasons or even who released him cannot be reported because of restrictive legislation.
The Newcastle News can reveal Kosowicz walked free from Morisset Hospital last month.
He had previously been allowed to leave the hospital for day trips and to visit family but was required to return to the facility.
Kosowicz will continue to be under some arms-length supervision and will continue to undergo random checks relating to the Child Protection Register.
But he will live at an undisclosed location where his history will not be known despite a chilling warning made by NSW Supreme Court Justice David Patten, who found Kosowicz not guilty of Chloe’s murder through mental illness in 2005.
In his judgment, Justice Patten said that he found it “difficult to escape
the conclusion that the community failed Chloe’’.
“Practitioners had known for years that the accused was a habitual and heavy user of illegal drugs; that he was mentally ill; that he was subject to florid psychiatric episodes in which he was aggressive and dangerous to himself and others; and that he was recalcitrant when it came to following regimens of medication laid down for him,’’ Judge Patten said.
“Despite all this, he was repeatedly let back into the community after short periods of treatment.
“The outcome was catastrophic in the extreme.’’
In the most chilling warning, Justice Patten later added: “No doubt the authorities will take account of the abovementioned matters when, in due course, they consider whether the accused should be released back into the community and will also take into account the horrific circumstances of Chloe’s death and that the accused is quite capable of being a plausible liar.’’
To add to the judge’s concerns are those of Kosowicz’s own family, who said he was a “ticking time bomb” before he killed Chloe.
His trial heard of more than four years of significant mental illness leading up to Chloe’s death, including numerous arrests and visits to hospital where Kosowicz spoke of voices in his head.
The psychotic episodes continued and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia with threats of violence, including by a medical officer just weeks before Chloe was killed.
At first, Kosowicz did not admit to killing Chloe. But as the evidence mounted during an interview with police, the then 22-year-old said he had strangled the five-year-old after she had followed his cat into his cabin at a caravan park where he and Chloe’s parents lived at Lansvale, in Sydney’s west.
Kosowicz told police he placed two bags over her head because he couldn’t kill her and assaulted her after she was dead.
He placed her in a suitcase as Chloe’s distraught family and emergency services were frantically searching for her, before carrying her in the early hours of the morning about 200 metres away where he dumped her body next to a river.
Support After Murder president Peter Rolfe said he was gobsmacked about Kosowicz’s release.
“I find it absolutely amazing that he has been released without any warnings to the general public. Who is to say he will not commit another crime.”