Susie O’Brien on Margaret River shooting: Worst threats are sometimes close to home
THE deaths of seven people at a rural WA property are a reminder that potent threats to our safety are often close to home, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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MUCH is made of the threat posed by extremist terrorists in this country.
As a result, we’re told to view Muslims with caution, close our borders, travel overseas with vigilance and be alert at all times.
But the deaths of seven people in a tight-knit community in Western Australia shows our fatal enemies are more likely to be closer to home.
MARGARET RIVER SHOOTING: SHATTERED FATHER SPEAKS
Mental health problems, substance abuse, relationship breakdown, family dissent, isolation, depression, desperation and child-custody disputes are the real killers, taking thousands of lives each year in this country alone.
This week, people across the country are wondering how one man, Peter Miles, was driven to kill six members of his family in an apparent murder-suicide on their country property.
It’s understood Miles shot his daughter, Katrina, and her four children before shooting his wife, Cynda, and himself last Friday morning.
While fewer than 10 people have died in terrorism-related incidents in this country in recent decades, more than 3000 die each year from suicide.
The suicide rate is now higher than it’s been for 10 years and is higher among men, agricultural workers and people from rural areas.
And yet it gets a fraction of the public funding and attention that anti-terrorism attracts.
Similarly, about 170 men, women and children die each year as a result of violence. In 40 per cent of cases, former or current partners or family members are charged over the killings.
These are also shocking statistics and a stark reminder of where our priorities should lie.
Although it’s still early days, many of those who knew Miles are trying to understand what could have made him end the lives of those he apparently loved so much.
Even the father of the four children, Aaron Cockman, struggled to find something bad to say about his former father-in-law at the weekend.
Those who knew Miles and his wife say they were well-respected and well-liked. And yet something was seriously awry at the Miles’ Forever Dreaming farm.
One explanation is that Miles was psychotic or acted in a drug or alcohol-induced rage. At this stage, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Rather, early comments suggest he was increasingly desperate about the plight of his grandchildren, Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Ayre, 10, and Kayden, 8.
The children, all of whom had autism, were home-schooled by their mother. Many families with children with disabilities say early intervention isn’t readily available and support services are expensive and scarce in the country.
It can’t have been easy for their mother, Katrina, who was living in a converted shed on her parents’ property. Katrina was also battling with the children’s father over his access to the children. Mr Cockman had been seeing his children on supervised visits. It appears that worried Miles, who previously said he would do everything he could to ensure the children no longer saw their father.
Katrina was also worried she was being stalked and mentioned it on Facebook. It’s unclear whether she meant Mr Cockman, who admitted to driving around the area hoping to catch sight of his children. Such behaviour can be misinterpreted amid hostile family arguments; he may see it as evidence of his love for the children. Katrina and her family may have instead seen it as threatening.
Other insights into the issues faced by Miles come from Mr Cockman, who recently talked about his former father-in-law’s heartache following the suicide of his son and the illness of another son. There were other signs of trouble for the Miles family.
Miles was looking for more work even though he already had two jobs working at a local high school and at his own hobby farm.
Now, I don’t want to suggest Miles’ action can be justified as some sort of ultimate sacrifice. There is nothing noble about forcibly taking the lives of innocent women and children at gunpoint. And yet all evidence suggests Miles was no madman striking out in anger. Those close to him, including the children’s father, say he was very close to his grandchildren.
Mr Cockman thinks Miles may have killed his family as a twisted way of “fixing things”.
We may never know what made him act in this way, but we must learn what we can in order to help others.
This may mean more mental health support for those in rural areas, a better understanding of the particular pressures faced by those on farms and more support for all family members affected by arguments over children.
Of course, measures to combat terrorist attacks need to continue in order to keep the death toll down, but we can’t afford to ignore the homegrown tragedies in our own backyards, towns and communities.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist
For help with emotional difficulties, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au
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