A " Family " Tragedy !

 It would be helpful if a lesson was learned from the death of four people who were not well served by the laws and services that are put in place to offer protection.  John Edwards was a violent man and his wife and two teenage children were afraid of him.  The marriage broke down and his wife sought the protection of the Family Court.

Despite a thirty year history of domestic violence well documented by the police, the Family Court insisted on imposing  a limited contact order to allow Edwards to visit his children.  As a result,  fifteen year old Jack and  thirteen year old Jennifer were ordered to attend what were termed " psychologist " meetings with their father.

This was despite the court learning that Jack kept a cricket bat in his bedroom as protection from his father and Jennifer was afraid to turn her back in case of a violent assault.  All the elements were in place to bring about the tragedy that followed.

Olga Edwards worked as a solicitor for a city firm and her estranged husband visited their home when the children were alone.  He came armed with a gun and he shot and killed both his own son and daughter, and later ended his own life.  Some months later, Olga's life ended by her own hand.

We have very strict firearm laws in place since the Port Arthur massacre and yet 67 year old John Edwards had no difficulty getting a shooters license that allowed him to buy a gun and ammunition.  His access to his estranged children was facilitated by a Family court threat that the children would be removed from their mother's care if she did not force them to attend these appointments.

It is all too easy to look back in retrospect and see what action should have been taken, but violence is all too often the outcome when relationships sever.  It seems that the Family court made the mistake of  down grading the incidents of violence against the children as simply  " heavy handed parenting ".   The actions of the Family court facilitated ongoing contact and did not facilitate the clean break that was required.

No doubt there will be an intensive investigation of why a man with a history of domestic violence was allowed to gain a license to buy and own a gun.   Murder can be accomplished with many lesser weapons, but a gun distributes absolute power against which there are few means of defence.  All too often a gun delivers multiple killings.

Another aspect of this tragedy is the fact that Olga Edwards is a trained solicitor and worked for a legal firm in the city, and yet despite her knowledge of the law and expertise she was helpless to protect her children against an estranged husband with a history of violence.   The safeguards we put in place - the Family court and the police - failed her.   What hope would an ordinary woman without that legal training have of avoiding a similar tragedy.

Edwards was a man with a compulsive personality He was over bearing in his attitude to others and this surfaced in his contact with the teachers guiding his children at school. There was overwhelming evidence - and this was ignored.  The Edwards children and their mother will not have died in vain if there is a positive response to put in place safeguards that really work  !