“I don’t want to go to Daddy’s house,” were the words that all the adults who knew Bradyn Dillon, should have heard, believed and acted upon.

That no one in authority listened or acted, meant that Bradyn, aged just 9, was brutally tortured over several months and eventually murdered by his father in 2016.

The child told people he was in danger the best way he knew how. And despite Bradyn being clear about what he wanted, qualified social workers who are trained to protect children, did not hear Bradyn.

A support worker who met the boy and his father when Bradyn was six years old, told an inquest in Canberra last week that he thought the father was “an amazing dad.”

The ability of serious violent offenders to appear to be ‘amazing dads’ is a key reason why social workers, court staff and judges need to listen very much more carefully to the children who appear fearful of visiting or living with a parent.

Sadly, Bradyn is a long way from being the only child who has tried to advocate for himself to secure protection from a violent parent in the Family Court. Far too many children feel abandoned by the authorities such as police, child protection workers and Family Court judges who do not act upon their desperate calls for help and protection.

Bradyn’s name is only being published now because he is dead.

Continue reading:

https://gumshoenews.com/2019/09/11/41-year-sentence-too-late-for-bradyn/