Peter Dutton reveals PTSD after cop career and death of baby Deidre Kennedy

Peter Dutton has opened up about the case that had the biggest impact on him following his career as a detective. Warning: Graphic

Liberal leader Peter Dutton has revealed he suffers from PTSD after his career as a young man as a police officer, and that he is haunted by sexual crimes he investigated including rape and child abuse.

The former Queensland cop sits down with Annabel Crabb in a new episode of Kitchen Cabinet set to air tonight to discuss the impact of the crimes he dealt with as a detective.

And he reveals it was the tragic and traumatic death of a baby girl called Deidre Kennedy, who was abducted from her bed in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Saturday, April 14, 1973 that left the biggest impact.

When the toddler’s body was found, there was a bite mark on the outside of her left leg, just above the knee. She was dressed in women’s underwear that had been stolen from a clothes line next door to the Kennedy home.

The toilet block where she was dumped was less than 200m away.

The cause of death was strangulation but the little girl who had just learned to walk was also sexually assaulted before she died.

Deidre Kennedy’s murder – which made national headlines – has stuck with Mr Dutton. Picture: Telegraph 1973

The Queensland Times front page from 1973 telling the story of the Deidre Kennedy murder.

Deidre’s mother, Faye Kennedy, at her home near Ipswich in 2002. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“I was a 19-year-old when I started policing and I had a fairly sheltered life in retrospect and I just hadn’t been exposed to that side and the viciousness of some people, the depravity of others,” he says in the episode.

“And it’s a small element of society, thank goodness. But it does stay with you. It jars and I think it scars as well. People would refer to it, I suppose, more frequently now as sort of a PTSD or just the mental hangover of seeing that repeatedly.

“There’s a shock value. Particularly those first scenes. And I, you know, I mean, I can remember going to crime scenes where a young girl had been raped and, you know, to this day, you can still remember the full name of the victim, the offender, the dates of birth, the times and, you know, still picture that scene because, you know, because that was the most traumatic moment in that person’s life and you’re sharing that journey with them.”

Asked if he had “some sort of form of PTSD”, Mr Dutton responds, “Probably every police officer does, to be honest, because I just don’t think you can live that life without it having an impact on you.

“Well, again, I think in those days, I mean, it just wasn’t available as it is today. So I think there’s just a coping mechanism that comes with it. And sort of I mean, the attitude in those days would have been just, you know, harden up.”

Mr Dutton, pictured with Deidre Kennedy’s mother Faye, first became a police officer at the age of 19. Picture: Jodie Richter/News Corp Australia

Mr Dutton spent years investigating the crime that shocked Queensland, but to this day nobody has been jailed for it.

An electrician, Raymond John Carroll, was arrested and charged over the murder. He was found guilty in 1985 but the verdict was overturned by a Queensland Court of Appeal.

Faye Kennedy, the mother of murdered baby Deidre Kennedy, has described Peter Dutton as a great support.

“Peter Dutton has really been my rock,” she said.

“He was a police officer and he actually worked on bubby’s case some years back.

“We’ve been pushing for ages and when I spoke to Peter Dutton this morning, I said it has finally come to fruition.”

Faye Kennedy calls Mr Dutton ‘my rock’. Picture: Jodie Richter/News Corp Australia

Speaking to 2GB radio this morning, Crabb said Mr Dutton revealed the sexual crimes he investigated had left a mark.

“So he went to the rape squad pretty quickly. And I mean, the most famous case that he was involved in was the murder of Deirdre Kennedy, an 18-month-old little girl abducted, assaulted and murdered,” she said.

Mr Dutton joined the police force in the late 1980s and graduated in October 1990.

“It can develop a bit of a siege mentality because you’re dealing with, you know, 10 per of society who you know, (are) really difficult and, you know, the majority of good people you never have any interaction with unless they’re a victim of crime,” he says on the program.

“I think it does even (out) in the way that you bring up your children. You know, not letting them out of your sight or I think there’s even a little bit more than the normal parenting because you’ve seen, you know, some horrific cases where kids have been abducted or assaulted or whatever it might be.

“Oh, I just think, you know, at parks and in those sort of public places, you know, going to public toilets when you were out, just I think it always weighs on your mind because they’re pretty significant events.”

Liberal Leader Peter Dutton joins Annabel Crabb on tonight’s episode of Kitchen Cabinet. Picture: ABC

He further reveals one of the tools he uses to deal with the stress and his current job is his “cathartic” commitment to regular meditation.

“I do. I do. I enjoy meditation. I find it cathartic and it gives you a balance back,” he says.

“I do a Vedic, so which is just a mantra for about 20 minutes, theoretically, morning and night.”

During the interview, Mr Dutton also joked about his hair loss and the cruel jibes that he now resembles a potato – an issue he described as the “Mr Potato-head stuff.”

“Well, you develop a pretty thick skin,” he says.

“But you read it and you think, well, it’s not very nice and normally it’s your wife or your mother, who gets most offended by it. But yeah, I think until maybe the last couple of years when the boys realised that maybe they one day could look like this as well, that they realised that maybe the genes aren’t that good.”

Mr Dutton joked he could start donning wigs, but wasn’t convinced it would work out.

“I haven’t enjoyed losing my hair actually. I just figured that my mates would carve me up if I turned up with plugs one day or,” he said.

“It’s a bit late to go the full wig. Well, I think a sort of a Ron Burgundy look with a wave. Maybe if I turned up one day, no one would notice.”

He added that his hair loss was due to alopecia, so “once it falls out it doesn’t grow back”.

Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet airs tonight on the ABC at 8pm or on iView