‘Enormous support’ for inquest into Charlie Mullaley’s brutal murder

Ten-month-old Charlie Mullaley was tortured and killed by his own father in WA in 2013 – now his family is finally pushing for justice.

WARNING: This story contains images and names of Indigenous people who have died.

An online petition for an inquest into the horrific murder of Charles “Charlie Boy” Mullaley has gained over 26,400 signatures.

In March 2013, Tamica Mullaley’s 10-month-old son was abducted, sexually assaulted and then killed by her partner, Mervyn Bell, after he left the then-28-year-old Yamatji woman naked and bleeding on a street in Broome, in Western Australia’s Kimberley.

“A neighbour had seen what was going on. She was looking out her window and saw Mervyn Bell completely bashing my daughter, like he would’ve if he was in a boxing fight,” Ms Mullaley’s mother, Julie Mullaley, recalled in the SBS series, See What You Made Me Do.

Police were called, but by the time they arrived, Bell had fled the scene – and in the chaos that followed, Ms Mullaley was arrested for assaulting a police officer.

“She wasn’t being a good victim. She wasn’t standing there in the sheet, dripping in blood, trying to control all this emotion that was going on with her,” Ms Mullaley’s Auntie, Kathleen Pinkerton, said.

“She said, ‘I want my dad, I want my dad’. And they decided she couldn’t have her dad. The two policemen – one woman and one man – they said that Tamica spat. And then they said, ‘That’s assault, that’s assault, you’re getting arrested’.

“I was thinking that, you know, they’re going to ask about how she got into the sheet. Who gave it to her? If they had have asked those two questions, they would’ve known that it was a serious domestic violence incident. But they didn’t ask the question.”

On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.

Almost 10 women a day are hospitalised for assault injuries at the hands of a spouse or domestic partner.

Every day in May, as part of Domestic and Family Violence Awareness Month, news.com.au will tell the stories behind those shocking statistics.

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A petition for an inquest into the murder of baby Charlie Mullaley has gained over 26,000 signatures. Picture: Change.org

Tamica Mullaley at a memorial for baby Charlie. Picture: Supplied

The child’s grandfather, Ted Mullaley, begged officers to take Charlie – but he was instead passed to friends, whose house Bell kidnapped him from about half an hour later.

In the hours that followed, Mr Mullaley repeatedly went to the Broome police station and urged them to search for his grandson, saying that Bell was going to “kill the baby”.

According to The West Australian, police were notified about Charlie after midnight but a police job wasn’t generated until 1:20am. When an alert was put out, it contained the wrong registration plate for the car Bell was driving.

“No one would help me. I was scared. But in my wildest dreams, I never thought that he would do what he did to baby,” Mr Mullaley said.

Despite telling Mr Mullaley that Charlie was “all right”, Bell had the baby for about 15 hours, abusing him before rushing his lifeless body into a roadhouse near Karratha, almost 1000km away.

Charlie was found to have had injuries from his head to his feet, including broken bones, third-degree burns, bruising, internal bleeding and severe lacerations.

When Bell was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering Charlie in 2014, in what the judge deemed an “evil” crime that “shocked the public conscience”.

Bell was sentenced to life with a 27-year minimum, but in September 2015, took his life in the special handling unit of Casuarina Prison.

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Now, once again, Charlie’s family are calling for a full investigation into the conduct of West Australian police on the night the baby was abducted, saying they need to be held accountable for their alleged role in the infant’s death.

“Baby Charlie didn’t have to die or suffer the unthinkable torture he endured,” Ms Pinkerton wrote in the petition.

“WA Police showed complete disregard for baby Charlie. Tamica and Ted begged police to help find him, but they refused. Ted and Tamica even had to go home and show the police a birth certificate to prove that Mervyn Bell wasn’t Charlie’s father and that Tamica was his mum. Meanwhile, his little body was already tortured, waiting to be found.”

Noongar human rights lawyer and member of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, Dr Hannah McGlade, said that Ms Mullaley’s case is “horrific”.

“At the same time, it’s very well known that Aboriginal women have a history of being treated as the perpetrator by the police and justice system, rather than the victim,” she told See What You Made Me Do.

“I read her case and went into a feeling of shock and horror. Shocking for me as an Aboriginal person who trained in law to fight for justice, I’ve never seen a case this bad. In this day and age, this is not just the past we’re talking about – we’re talking about now.”

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Ms Mullaley outside the WA Supreme Court. Picture: Supplied

Julie Mullaley and Kathleen Pinkerton. Picture: SBS

The family is calling for three things: a coronial inquest or parliamentary inquiry into the way that WA Police failed Tamica, Ted and Baby Charlie; the WA Attorney-General to finally meet with the Mullaley family; and an investigation into how the Crime and Corruption Commission “failed to focus on why WA Police did not take steps to ensure that Baby Charlie was left in a safe place and was safe from harm”.

CEO and Principal Solicitor of the National Justice Project, George Newhouse, told news.com.au in a statement that the “rapid response from the community to the family’s petition shows that there is enormous support for an inquiry”.

“The WA Attorney-General, John Quigley, must not ignore the family’s call for justice nor the community’s voice. He has a unique opportunity to help tackle the way our systems have left down Aboriginal women who are the survivors of domestic violence and their children,” he said.

“I encourage him to not only meet with the Mullaley family, but to establish a public inquiry into the causes of Baby Charlie’s death.”

In a statement, the Mullaley family said the petition is “to help our family to get answers – why didn’t anyone listen to our plea for help?”

“We will never get over our loss but we don’t give up until our voice is heard, so that no other family will have to go through what we have,” they said.

“We want people to know what happened and we want change in the system of treating vulnerable domestic violence victims.”

You can sign the petition for Justice for Baby Charlie here.

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