‘Why am I having to defend the decisions I made about our son?’ Batty asks during questioning at coronial inquest

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Rosie Batty has angrily rejected questioning that focused on her behaviour in the lead-up to the murder of her son, Luke, by his father.



For more than a decade, she did everything she could to act in the best interests of Luke, while also trying to protect herself from the escalating violence inflicted on her by her former partner, Greg Anderson, the inquest into Luke’s death heard on Tuesday.

Luke, 11, was murdered in February by Anderson with a cricket bat and a knife on an oval in Tyabb, Victoria.

Asked repeatedly on Tuesday afternoon what she might have done differently had she known certain bits of information, Batty began to yell.

“Why am I having to defend the decisions I made about our son?” she said. “Isn’t it unfair that I’m the one having to answer for all this?

“Did I ever think Luke would get smacked over the head with a cricket bat and stabbed to death? Of course I didn’t. So don’t ask me any more about what I did, and the risk I thought there was, because there was an ongoing, never-ending consideration of Luke’s safety.

“He got killed on a day when I thought it was fine. If I had called the police, can anyone tell me that Luke and I would have been safe?

“No. This was a premeditated act, this was deliberate, but Greg was the only one who knew it.

“Can you imagine what that feels like, that someone against all odds wants to make you suffer for the rest of your life to win? But let me tell you by the end of this investigation, I hope you all do.

“No one loved my son more than me.”

Batty told the inquest that despite all the questioning and doing her best to give clear answers while reliving the trauma, the outcome would always be the same for her.

“All I can do is make sure that some people, out of all of this, learn,” she said.

“I could have made different decisions, and I wish I had. But in the future, different decisions can be made.”

The questioning was intended to help the coroner, Ian Gray, make recommendations about how child protection and law enforcement systems might be changed or work together better to inform and protect people under threat from family members.

But it was clearly distressing for Batty, who often broke down, thumping the table in despair and at times yelling as she was forced to recall certain incidents and her actions over and over again.

She explained numerous times that Anderson had shown nothing but love towards Luke, and had hurt only her. She described how Luke loved spending time with his dad, and how she wanted Luke to have as normal a childhood as possible.

But Batty said she could only make decisions based on the information she had. She had an “unconditional love” for her son, who wanted a relationship with his dad, she said. Batty said she felt alone in making sure Anderson adhered to court orders, an unending burden.

When Luke was murdered, the inquest was told, Batty had no idea Anderson had an intervention order taken out against him by his former housemate after threatening to decapitate him.

“I’d like to think [if I’d known,] I would have stayed at cricket training, I would have realised police should have been informed with a heightened sense of urgency,” Batty said.

When she dropped Luke off at the oval for midweek practice and saw Anderson waiting, she had just returned from five weeks’ holiday with her son. Anderson seemed happy to see Luke and in jovial spirits, Batty said.

“Why not let Luke, after suffering so much trauma, have a hit with his dad?” Batty said.

An intervention order stipulated that Anderson could see Luke only at weekend sports matches and not midweek, another piece of information Batty did not know.

Knowing there was at least one warrant out for Anderson’s arrest, she had thought about calling the police, but did not want to do that in a public place and have Anderson arrested in front of Luke’s friends, as had happened before.

Detectives had Anderson’s address, and could have arrested him at any time, Batty said.

There were four warrants out for Anderson’s arrest, two intervention orders imposed on him, and a charge of accessing child pornography, but again Batty said she was forced to handle a situation involving him on her own because no one else had stopped him.

With plenty of parents and children around, she let Luke continue to practise with Anderson once cricket training was over, the pair always in her line of sight.

She told the inquest Luke had asked her: “Is it all right to have a bit more time with Dad, because I haven’t seen him in a while?”.

Luke was killed because Anderson succeeded in getting him alone, the inquest was told. He kept his son in the nets once training was over, continuing to help him practise as other children left.

When most people had gone, Anderson brought the cricket bat down on Luke’s head, before retrieving a knife from his backpack and stabbing him, the inquest was told.

There was much Batty had not known throughout the past two years, the inquest heard.

She had no idea Anderson was facing charges of accessing child pornography until eight months after the fact.

Batty said she went to court numerous times in order to take out and alter intervention orders, which Anderson often breached anyway. All the while she dealt with several prosecutors and police who often didn’t communicate with one another, she told Gray.

Despite the involvement of courts, police and child protection officers, Batty told the inquest, she often felt she was forced to carry out their orders and stand up to Anderson on her own.

No one had ever raised the possibility with her that Anderson might be capable of killing Luke, Batty told the inquest.

The inquest continues on Wednesday.

• This article was amended on 24 October 2014 to correct a reference to Greg Anderson being Rosie Batty’s ex-husband.