Woman says she ‘didn’t understand mental health’ before daughter experiencing acute psychosis killed another child | New South Wales
The child killer did not understand his mother’s mental health and consulted a naturopathic herbalist about her concerns about her teenage daughter, the inquest heard.
Two weeks after the 14-year-old girl admitted to her mother that she “always” thought about killing people, the girl killed 10-year-old Biddy Porter on a property in rural New South Wales.
Biddy, remembered as a lively, intelligent and creative child, died from multiple injuries on July 8, 2020, while staying at the facility during the school holidays.
The NSW supreme court ruled in 2021 that Biddy’s killer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was not criminally liable due to mental illness.
He has been in custody since his arrest and is being supervised by a mental health review court.
Two psychiatrists determined that the teenager suffered from schizophrenia and was in acute psychosis at the time of the murder.
The barrister assisting Peggy Dwyer SC at the inquest at Lidcombe coroner’s court said the teenager was likely suffering from delusions and had “lost touch with reality”.
Dwyer also noted the teenager’s deteriorating mental health before the murder and his “disturbing” descent into psychosis, including acts of self-harm, a fascination with knives and a sense of not feeling real.
After the teenager slaughtered six chickens on the family property in June 2019, his parents lifted his bedroom door and smashed a video game in half.
When asked why she didn’t get mental health support for her daughter, the teen’s mother said it didn’t occur to her.
“[The chickens] They were going to be culled, so that’s what happened to them anyway,” the mother told the inquest on Wednesday morning.
“Mental health has never been on my radar.
“I never believed in mental health, I didn’t understand mental health, so it didn’t feel like something I should do.”
The mother said she was upset that the teenager killed the chickens because she did not have permission to slaughter the chickens that stopped laying eggs.
“I don’t understand why this is such a big red flag,” the woman told the inquest.
The inquest was previously told the mother had asked a naturopathic herbalist about her daughter’s behavior and the practitioner told her to call a GP.
The mother made an appointment with a doctor after the girl revealed she had disturbing thoughts about killing people, including her parents and brother.
The doctor wrote a referral letter for a psychiatrist in Sydney and the mother only found it in her email spam folder after the first day of the investigation.
Exactly a week after his GP appointment, he murdered young Biddy while the two were left alone in the farmhouse.
The inquest, which is examining possible systemic failures and early warning signs in the lead-up to Biddy’s murder, continues before NSW state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.
