Injustice for this woman and her child

[Mammasmitten]

This makes me incredibly sad and angry: www.google.com.au/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/9570536

This man violently punched his partner to death 3 weeks after she gives birth to their baby, then disposes her body and all he gets is 9 years for manslaughter. The article also says that he will be given custody of their child when he completes his sentence. Words just can't convey how obscene this is. I feel so upset by this. How could this man not be charged with murder? Is this because of a disregard towards women killed by intimate partner, a discrimination towards victims of domestic violence? And this baby's future made unsafe now. How could anyone think it's ok for a child to be made to live with a violent father who killed his mother? I'm shocked and angry. I'm not entirely surprised. My country (Australia) is very patriarchal.

Bloody hell.

Something that makes me sick is that there has been such a huge campaign reframing the 'king hit' as a 'coward punch' with a mandatory tough sentence, but this is still how women are treated under law when victims of arguably worse violence. Poor woman, poor child, how horrible and wrong.

Clicky link www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-21/leeanne-lapham-death-graeme-evans-sentenced-manslaughter-qld/9570536

Horrible story. Horrible man. Horrible thought that the child will ever go to him.

I was talking to someone the other day about trauma in teenagers. We work with young women who are addicts, have abusive boyfriends, use through pregnancy, go to prison, all that stuff. I said that I thought bereavement was underestimated as a cause. She said she's gone through hundreds of files and, although bereavement is there, the one thing they ALL had was the young person being witness to violence. ALL the files.

It is abusive to give a child to someone who killed their mother. Who could possibly think it wasn't?

9 years is a pathetic amount but he won't get custody of the child as there won't be one. The murder happened in 2010 so the baby will be 19 when he gets out of prison, and not interested in his dad at all I imagine!

She was found naked.
Evil monstrous man.

Has her son been living with him all this time?

Clickly link article seems to suggest he has been caring for his son for the past 8 years.
That poor woman, and the poor child. Such a lot for him to go through, being raised by this man and then he will find out (through peers if not family) that his dad has been arrested for killing his mother.

But 9 years for killing a person and disposing of the body seems really ridiculous.

"He's looking forward to doing his time" according to his lawyer. WTAF...

Thanks everyone for your responses. I needed to hear other people on this. There are so many awful news reports in the world but this one just really hit something in me. Nautical Disaster thank-you for posting the clicky link. I couldn't figure out how to make the link clickable. And yes horrible story and horrible man. Thank-you FlakyToast and RafikilsTheBest for pointing out that the murder (I think it's murder so calling it that) happened in 2010. I reread the article and not sure how I missed that except for the fact that I was immediately upset at the headline that he was charged with manslaughter for punching her to death. It is awful that his son has been living with his mums murderer. I can't imagine how anyone could cope with finding out their parent had violently killed their other parent, hid it for so long and raised them as if they hadn't done something so horrible. I hope that young boy gets all the love and support he needs. And PastaofMuppets (love your username) I thought the exact same thing. One punch cowards punch has tough sentencing but punching a woman who has recently given birth to death is treated as somehow less of a crime. Incredibly wrong. And for the last year or so media and government claiming domestic violence is a priority. I really can't believe that now.

Feminist Badger Exactly WTAF! Maybe he thinks he's going to be rewarded in prison and treated like a legend?

I'm prepared to assume that a man who'd murder a new mother was not the sort of man who'd have been a safe father the past 8 years. The boy may not be surprised with the news. :( H'es most certainly safer now anyway.