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Thursday February 23, 2012

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Darcey Freeman's mum sues VicRoads

Posted by: 3AW Radio | 27 January, 2012 - 7:20 AM
Darcey Freeman: The little girl who was killed last week

HINCH BLOG: This is a hard topic to handle. And lengthy comment on it will inevitably add to the pain of a young mother who has suffered enough. Even the headline in the Herald Sun pulls at the heartstrings. It says: Pay for our Pain.  Tragic Darcey’s mum sues Victoria over failure to erect West Gate barriers.

Darcey Freeman was the pretty, defenceless, four-year-old girl who was thrown off the West Gate by her father Arthur Freeman while her two little brothers watched in their car. Freeman was convicted of her murder and is serving at least 32 years in jail for the peak hour crime which shocked Australia.

Darcey’s mother, Peta Barnes, is suing VicRoads claiming safety barriers on the bridge could have saved her daughter’s life. Barriers which have since been erected.

Just short of the third anniversary of her daughter’s death her mother has sued on the grounds of negligence and nervous shock. She says the road authority continually ignored advice to install anti-jumping fencing.

That may be so. But this madman was going to do his utmost to hurt his ex-wife. And destroying something she loved beyond life itself was his aim.

If you can throw your own child from a road 50 metres high  you can just as easily throw her under a train or off an apartment balcony.

I’ve said before, in the case of suicides, if a jump shield is installed on a bridge a determined person will find another way. Another venue.

Much is being made of the fact that since the Government spent $20 million on on suicide prevention fences the number of jumpers from the West Gate has declined by 85 per cent.

That doesn’t mean suicides in Victoria have dropped by 85%. Far from it. People have found other ways, other places.

And if this case were to succeed: Could I go home tonight and jump off my apartment balcony knowing that my family would be financially rewarded with a negligence law suit against the body corporate.

My insurance company may not pay out but a negligence case could succeed.

If I go hiking in the Blue Mountains and jump off a cliff would national park authorities be at fault for not installing bigger lookout  fences?

It sounds callous. I feel for that poor mother. She has lived and is still  living a nightmare that other mothers could not bear thinking about. She should be compensated as a victim of crime. But I can’t  accept the premise for legal action.

She says in her impact statement: ‘Not a day goes by where I do not constantly miss Darcey, where I don’t miss her  and wish with all my heart that she was with me’.

Surely, a protracted legal battle would make it even worse.

PLAY: Derryn Hinch discuses the lawsuit with Ike Nwokolo, public liability lawyer from Slater & Gordon

UPDATE:  A leading lawyer says VicRoads could be facing a number of claims by those who've lost loved ones off the West Gate Bridge.

It follows the revelation the mother of Darcey Freeman, who was thrown from the bridge by her father, is suing VicRoads claiming safety barriers could have saved her daughter's life.

David Galbally QC says he is already handling such a case.

EARLIER: The mother of Darcey Freeman, who was thrown from the West Gate Bridge by her father, is suing VicRoads.

Lawyers for Peta Barnes have begun Supreme Court action claiming the roads authority continually ignored advice to install anti-jump fencing.

The court action comes two days short of the third anniversary of Darcey's death.

Do you support Darcey Freeman's mother taking court action against VicRoads over the death of her daughter?

PLAY: Neil Mitchell speaks to David Galbally QC

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Freeman cops life sentence

CCTV still of Arthur Freeman at Commonwealth Law Courts The man who threw his four-year-old daughter off Melbourne's West Gate Bridge has been sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 32 years.

Blog comments Your Say

  • The father is responsible along with his parents who chose to put the"rights" of their murderous son ahead of the safety of their grandchildren. They noticed he was unhinged and did nothing and then had the temerity to whine in court that they were victims also.

    Christina Monday 20 February, 2012 - 9:58 PM

  • Let her RIP. What are you doing, her father killed her, not a lack of barriers, he'd have done it elsewhere. It's very sad, but suing will not bring her back.

    margy Sunday 29 January, 2012 - 11:49 PM

  • Agree with Taking the Mickie. SERIOUSLY misguided on the part of the mother, this is simply NOT the way to deal with the loss.

    Justine Sunday 29 January, 2012 - 11:32 PM

  • I think it should be done because if Vic roads had put the berries up soon after the bridge wasn't up like it had been protested to then the father would not have been able to throw her off

    mellisa Sunday 29 January, 2012 - 3:26 PM

  • i say she had best DROP IT, it was the childs father and he should be the one she sues not vic roads, she is doing it for the money nothing else

    annie king Sunday 29 January, 2012 - 10:29 AM

  • You have to ask why she is suing anyone. No amount of money will bring her daughter back. AND what does she want from Vicroads, Money?

    Gary Sunday 29 January, 2012 - 12:29 AM

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