'So much blood': Mother recounts horror when psychotic husband's gun killed daughter
The mother of a girl who was shot and killed after the children got their hands on their psychotic father's shotgun has revealed the eternal nightmare his reckless and unhinged behaviour condemned their family to.
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A paranoid drug addict, who armed himself with a sawn-off shotgun and barricaded his home to keep shadowy attackers away from his children, cast his loved ones into an eternal “nightmare” when his three-year-old daughter was fatally shot in the neck.
The 46-year-old, who cannot be named, slapped his palm against his own forehead, distressed, as his legal team told Parramatta District Court on Wednesday he has been consumed by guilt.
“He has been suffering his guilt and remorse ever since the day this occurred,” his barrister, David Dalton SC told the court.
The court heard the man’s wife had an AVO out against him — his extensive history of drug addiction, psychotic behaviour and criminality was well known to authorities.
However his wife told the court he had been “manipulating” her and she allowed him to move back into the family home at Lalor Park where she lived with their daughter and three other children in mid-2017.
His erratic behaviour was in full swing and he was taking drugs again when the fatality occurred, the court heard.
The man would later tell psychologists his brother, who had been shot dead in 2001, had visited him the day before the shooting and told him he needed to protect his family.
He said he saw shadows moving through the rooms of his home and could hear phantom footsteps.
When his wife returned home with the children she found the house boarded up, the court heard.
She was putting the children to bed when the man and his other brother decided to leave the house.
They were still in the driveway, and she was in the kitchen, when the shot rang out.
She described the scene of total horror that confronted her when she ran into their bedroom.
“I remember the gunshot and seeing my baby girl lying face down and not really knowing what was happening at the time but the scene echoes in my head and my thoughts to this day,” she said in a letter to the court.
“I remember turning my baby girl over and seeing her lifeless eyes and there being so much blood everywhere.”
Police are unable to determine exactly how the shotgun went off but, according to documents, they believe one of the other children may have retrieved it from under the bed and accidentally shot the girl.
The father rushed into the house and apologised over and over but his wife said she knew it would do nothing to bring her daughter back.
The man believed he had stored the gun away from where children could access it by placing it beneath a mattress that was too big for his daughter to lift.
“In his delusional state, we say, on that horrible afternoon … he hasn’t stored it under the mattress even though he thought he had,” Mr Dalton said.
“There is no suggestion, whatsoever, this man meant to leave (the gun) in a position where the child could access it.”
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 4.
Judge Stephen Hanley SC asked his legal team what he should make of a man who had previously been medicated but chose instead to take psychosis-inducing illegal drugs with terrible consequences.
“(The shooting) shattered the family, it’s had the children taken away from the mother,” he said.
In her victim impact statement, the now 44-year-old woman said her life as a mother was over.
“(My daughter) would be at school now if she was still alive,” she wrote.
“I used to dream of the day she would grow into a beautiful young woman and live out her dreams. I see little girls everywhere that look like her and my heart hurts.”
The man will be sentenced on Tuesday, June 16 and is facing a maximum 25 years in prison.
READ THE MOTHER’S VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT:
I collapse inside every time I think of the night I lost my beautiful girl. It was the night my entire world changed and I entered into a nightmare that clings to me every day … I was 41 years old that night and my baby girl was only three years young.
I remember the gunshot and seeing my baby girl lying face down and not really knowing what was happening at the time but the scene echoes in my head and my thoughts to this day.
I remember turning my baby girl over and seeing her lifeless eyes and there being so much blood everywhere.
I remember my rage at him because I knew it was his fault and him saying sorry which will never be enough and will never bring my baby girl back to me.
I have nightmares every day and often jolt awake on the rare occasion I am able to sleep. I am on medications to sleep and deal with my anxiety and fear of him.
He had a gun, he brought it to my house, he put my family in danger and because of him (my daughter) died while I was in the next room putting my son to sleep.
I have flashbacks about this every day.
I thought I could hold him at bay and be able to protect them and the harsh reality is I couldn’t and now I have lost the most precious thing to me, my baby girl and my three beautiful innocent boys.
I lost all my children that night. Because he had controlled and manipulated and scared me for so long FACS didn't think I could safely protect my children.
They were worried I would get back with him and put my other children at risk even though I told them I could never go back to the man that brought the gun that killed my daughter.
My three beautiful boys who had lost their adored baby sister weren't allowed to live with me and had to live with family and other people.
I remember this happening in the past and how it affected my children as they wouldn't eat and were in constant anxiety from being taken away from their family. I can only imagine what they are experiencing and going through at the moment in their lives and this was all brought on by (the man’s) narcissistic behaviour.
I am now 44 and my life as I knew it as a mother is now over.
…
The biggest impact is the loss of my beautiful baby girl. Every day I cry for her, on the inside and the outside.
She would be at school now if she was still alive … I used to dream of the day she would grow into a beautiful young woman and live out her dreams. I see little girls everywhere that look like her and my heart hurts.