Mother lives a nightmare knowing her son is committing violent crimes against innocent people

A mother of a known criminal has called for changes to the Mental Health Review act and revealed her son has worked out how to play the system.

The mother of a criminal who has left “victims in his wake” has joined calls for changes to the “cloak and dagger” Mental Health Review Tribunal, saying her son has worked out how to play the system.

The mum said she is living in a nightmare, knowing her son is committing violent crimes against innocent people, including robbing restaurant staff at knifepoint.

“I am the mother of a criminal child who has mental health problems and needs proper treatment but who is also hurting people,” she said.

Her comments come after a series of reports in The Sunday Telegraph exposing what victims’ families describe as “soft- touch justice” and bizarre rules that prevent them form speaking out.

She was rocked by the story of 10-year-old Biddy Porter and her mum Rebekah’s anguish over her daughter’s killer being allowed day release from a forensic facility, less than four years after killing Biddy.

The woman said her son spent time at a NSW forensic hospital last year and was released in January.

Our story on the Mental Health Review Tribunal.

One woman says she is terrified her son is committing crimes against innocent people.

“We were told he was too well to be kept in the forensic hospital but we still said he is a danger and not allowed to come home,” she said.

“The Mental Health Review Tribunal then decided to release him on a community treatment order which he just kept running away from. He knew they couldn’t do anything to make him comply, so he would move from local government area to local government area to interstate.

“The Mental Health Tribunal apparently couldn’t do anything to enforce it, neither could community mental health or police,” she said.

Bridgette ‘Biddy’ Porter was just 10 when she was brutally killed.

Biddy’s mum Rebekah Porter is pushing for change. Picture: Dean Marzolla

Her son has been charged again and is serving three years in a Queensland jail.

“This system we have bounces him back and forth between justice, health and back again. It’s a broken system that’s not even getting Band-Aid fixes,” she said.

“I want people like my son and Biddy’s killer to receive the medication and treatment that they need while serving appropriate and lengthy sentences.”

We reported how relatives of five victims say killers are being released from forensic mental health facilities far faster than jail parole terms and the decisions are shrouded in secrecy under bizarre laws that ban their publication.

A state government spokesman said the government was “open to reforms that enhance transparency and provide a better understanding of ­judicial and clinical decision-making”.

Sign the Justice for Biddy Porter petition at Justice4BiddyPorter.com