Family lawyer dismissed killer dad John Edwards as ‘slightly annoying’
One of killer dad John Edwards’s older daughters told police of her terror after he had abused her as a child and returned to stalk her, but a specially-trained family lawyer said he had just been a “slightly annoying grandfather”, an inquest was told.
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One of killer dad John Edwards’s older daughters told police of her terror after he had abused her as a child and returned to stalk her, even trying to get into her car with her, but a specially-trained family lawyer said he had just been a “slightly annoying grandfather”, an inquest was told.
The solicitor Debbie Morton, who was the court-appointed lawyer to represent Edwards’ youngest two children in family court proceedings before he murdered them, today admitted her description had been wrong.
The details of his stalking were included in a police report when the older daughter, who was born to one of Edwards’ previous partners, applied for an AVO against her father in 2011 to protect both her and his two grandchildren.
Ms Morton had been given a copy of that police report before she recommended to a family court in 2016 that Jack Edwards and Jennifer Angel Edwards be made to visit Edwards despite allegations that he had bashed them.
She said she had taken the 2011 report as a “historical” document.
Then she admitted today under questioning by counsel assisting the inquest Kate Richardson SC that she should have seen the report as showing Edwards was a “significant” risk to Jack and Jennifer.
“I guess yes,” Ms Morton said.
She had been appointed the independent childrens’ lawyer to represent Jack and Jennifer in the custody proceedings between their mother Olga and their father.
The inquest was told on Thursday that in 2011, the older daughter had been selling her house. She had had no contact with Edwards since 1997 because he abused her as a child and had been scared for her safety after she learned he had attended an open day at her house under a false name and pushed a letter under the front door.
One morning soon after she was taking her daughter to school when Edwards stepped out from behind a tree.
The daughter got back in the car but Edwards’ opened the door. She managed to pull the door shut and drove to her husband’s workplace because she was too terrified to go home alone.
She has since moved overseas.
“On any view, of reading that material ... could anyone come to the view that that was just a case of a slightly annoying grandfather,” Ms Richardson put to Ms Morton.
Ms Morton, who was giving evidence via AVL from her Gymea law firm, said: “Yes”.
The inquest was also told that the Edwards children, Jack and Jennifer, had told a family court therapist that they did not want to visit their father because he was violent and mistreated Jennifer’s pets.
But Ms Morton said the children had told her in a private meeting that they did want to spend time with their dad — but there was no evidence of a file note she said she made of that.
Ms Morton has been slammed by David Brown, the solicitor who represented their mother Olga Edwards in the family court proceedings, for allegedly being a bully, being mean and for wanting the children to visit their father despite shocking claims of being beaten.
Ms Morton on Thursday clashed with counsel assisting the inquest, Kate Richardson SC, as she was quizzed over why there was no note about the children’s feelings in the private meeting which happened in December 2016, three days before the first court hearing over their custody.
In July 2018, Edwards shot Jack Edwards, 15, and Jennifer Angel Edwards, 13, dead in the house where they had moved with their mother to hide from him. Then Edwards shot himself.
Six months later, Olga Edwards, 37, killed herself.
Ms Morton claimed today that Jack Edwards had told her when she spoke to them before the court case that he was “quite keen to be able to see his dad he was also conscious that his mum didn’t want him to do that”.
She said Jennifer was a “bit ambivalent” because she had read her mother’s affidavit to the family court in which Olga Edwards had catalogued their dad’s violence towards them but that Jennifer said she would go and spend time with her dad if Jack did.
“She wanted to accompany Jack,” Ms Morton said.
Ms Richardson said that there was no file note in Ms Morton’s files about her conversation with the children.
Ms Morton told the inquest she would normally make a file note and could not say why she could not find one in this case.
Ms Morton had also been told that Olga Edwards had filed a notice of risk for her children which had been forwarded by the court to what was then the Department of Family and Community Services.
In her affidavit in the family court proceedings, Ms Edwards had said that her estranged husband’s anger and his outbursts created a real risk to their children and that she believed Edwards had a “narcissist personality disorder”.
Ms Edwards had also told a court-appointed therapist that she thought Jack and Jennifer were old enough to make the decisions for themselves about whether they wanted to visit their father, the inquest heard.
The family consultant told the family court in 2016 that Jack did not want to see his father because he was physically violent and Jennifer had said she did not want to see her father because he was “physically violent to Jack and he mistreated her pets”.
The inquest continues.