The jury verdict news around Arthur Freeman throwing his daughter off the West Gate Bridge ignited a new level of compunction in me.
Physically I was contorted into an angry twisted being sitting in front of the television watching the news. Emotionally, I was devastated for the children, not just the Freeman children but for all innocent souls growing under violent circumstances.
There is talk about how the Family Court needs to ensure and assure child safety in matters of family breakdowns. There is talk of how men have a sense of ‘entitlement’ over families or newly ex-ed spouses. There is also talk of revenge on ex-partners, so bitterly avenged through filicide.
I still ask, why? I can’t empathise, as much as I try to see how he could have reached the point in his mind to carry out such a horrific and cowardly act.
To then be reminded what his son — actually I would rather say Darcey’s brother here — in my mind, Arthur has lost his rights as a father — said on seeing his sister being sinisterly thrown into an abyss, that he “needed to go back and get her because she couldn’t swim”.
Contemplate for a moment the minds of her brothers. Watching their so-called father do this. How could he? Arthur Freeman was 35 at the time. He is my age.
This is but one case. This is a travesty of human nature, it is a mark against all the broken families scattered across this planet. There are some who cope, there are some who don’t, then there are some who seek revenge on the most innocent.
Dawn and I take these marks and remind ourselves that we are in a treasured place. At peace, with safe and happy children.
Darcey Freeman survived the nearly 200-metre fall, but her injuries weren’t able to sustain her breath of life and she died in the water with strangers around her.
Ironically, it was her father who picked her up out of the car. It was a trembling, dark stranger who threw her over the railing. There is a lesson in this crime somewhere.
No words can express.
info: Follow John on Twitter @daddydearest_
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