This Boy's Life
Producer: Caitlin Shea
Researcher:

Hello. I'm Caroline Jones. Tonight's Australian Story is about Jenny Newman, a single mother of four from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. Two years ago a highly publicised tragedy rocked her family, and overnight, Jenny found that she was the full-time carer for her little grandson, Chris. He was then 2.5 years old. This is Jenny Newman's story.


JENNY NEWMAN: Chris, in all ways of looking at it, is now my child. He will be my responsibility and I'm... ..very clear on the fact that if you have kids, they belong to you forever. They might disappoint you, they might not do the things that you were hoping they would do, but they are your responsibility, so you look after them.


JODIE NEWMAN: Mum's taken on a lot. She was sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, didn't know what to do. You know, he is her grandson, he needs help. There's no-one else that's gonna help him. If she doesn't help him, he's gonna be a ward of the state. She couldn't just leave him. And I don't think any of us could have left him.


JENNY NEWMAN: Simon, whilst with all the best intentions, wanting to be Chris's dad, full-time dad... ..is incapable of fulfilling it. Chris's needs are too high.


JODIE NEWMAN: Chris would love to have his dad around more. He loves seeing Simon. But I think Simon's still trying to work through Beanca dying and it's taking a long time.


JENNY NEWMAN: Simon met Rebecca when he was around 15. Rebecca would have been 17 - she's a bit older. She got pregnant with Chris virtually straightaway. Rebecca was anything but tidy. If she couldn't look after her own basic hygiene needs, then I couldn't see how she was gonna look after a child's. And that proved to be correct. She lived in absolute filth. The place just reeked. There would be babies' bottles on the floor with curdled milk in them. I mean, there was cigarette butts all over Chris's bed. I mean, it was just disgusting.


JODIE NEWMAN: There was something about Bec that didn't sit right with me, and I was always very suspicious of her, and when I found out that they were having another baby, I was even more worried.


JENNY NEWMAN: Beanca's birthday was January and Chris's is February, so they came very quickly together. And, no, I wasn't happy. I thought one was hard enough for them to be looking after, let alone a second one.


JODIE NEWMAN: There was a day where I rang Mum and I said, Look, I'm going to get those kids. I can't let them stay there anymore. And she said, No, you can't. Part of me still wishes that I had taken them that day, you know?


REBECCA NEWMAN: She was a gorgeous little baby. She always had a smile on her face. She had fun with Chris, but Chris didn't want to play with her. She knew more things than he did. She learnt quicker.


JENNY NEWMAN: I was extremely worried about Chris by this stage, and I'd made several suggestions, of which I was told, you know, "Mind your own business," basically. Simon was a really good dad. He is a good dad. He was still young, but he was holding down a full-time job, bringing in the money. I know they had a lot of arguments. He didn't like what was happening with the kids, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. She was a much stronger person than what Simon was. So he left, but he was back every lunchtime and every night after work to see the kids.


MEGAN NEWMAN: We had Beanca's first birthday party here, and that was...that was fun. She was really happy. We got a big blow-up pool - she loved it. Chris had fun in his own little way, and she loved to tear open the presents, and it was good.


JENNY NEWMAN: The last time we saw them was just after Beanca's birthday. Simon was still going there every day and night and he went one afternoon and she wasn't there. She'd left everything and Simon started trying to track her down and we couldn't find her. We didn't know where she was at all. And that was in about May.


NEWS REPORTER: Beanca's mother, Rebecca Halliday, was just 20 when she took the little girl and her brother, Chris, away from their father, and moved into a caravan at Caboolture with 23-year-old Daniel Green.


JENNY NEWMAN: I was extremely worried about them. Then it was 31 July. Simon received a phone call from we don't know who, saying that Beanca had died and that was all, that's all they told us.


NEWS REPORTER: Paramedics found Beanca dead on her bed. She'd suffocated.


JODIE NEWMAN: Mum and Simon flew up to Queensland. They got on the first flight they could.


JENNY NEWMAN: We went straight to the police station at Caboolture. We spent five hours there and then they took us over to Child Protection. This was at four o'clock. We were told by five o'clock we had to remove Chris from her care or they would, and he would've been placed in foster care, which I did not want to happen. We found the address where she was at, went and removed Chris. When we grabbed him and threw him in the car and took off, I mean, I don't think my heart's ever pounded so fast. It was just frightening. The department wanted us to stay in Queensland and follow up, but we got legal advice and we were told, Get him back to Victoria. He was born in Victoria. Bring him home, go to the courts here and deal with it that way. So we did.

The whole drama of getting Chris and taking off with him was awful, but then coming back on the plane, I kept waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder. And when we got off the plane, my phone was just going crazy with calls from them. But Chris was calm, he was happy. He just cuddled up in my arms and went to sleep, so he knew he was safe. And I had no worries in my mind about what I was doing, but I was concerned about what they could then do.


NEWS REPORTER: Emotions were high this morning at the Caboolture house where 18-month-old Beanca Newman was found dead earlier this week. We've arrested two persons for the offences of manslaughter, torture and deprivation of liberty.


JODIE NEWMAN: It took us about a week to find out what had actually happened. No-one was really willing to talk to us because we were on the paternal side. The first I found out about it was really through the newspaper, and it said that she'd been hogtied.


NEWS REPORTER: Police allege 23-year-old Daniel Green and his 20-year-old de facto, Rebecca Halliday, kept the child tied hand and foot while she slept.


JENNY NEWMAN: For at least six weeks, that we can figure out, they had been tying Beanca up each night. And on the day that she died, she'd been tied up for 16 hours. She was lying face down. Her hands and feet were tied behind her back and tied to each other. And then she was bound up in a blanket, so she couldn't breathe.


NEWS REPORTER: Green admitted to police he tied up the screaming child each night to stop her climbing out of bed and annoying the couple. Beanca's mother did nothing to stop him.


JENNY NEWMAN: That a mother can sit there and listen to her - and she would have been terribly distressed, and, um... I don't know how you could sit there and listen to it... ..and not... I don't care who this other person was. You can't allow somebody else to do that to your child and not stop it.


JODIE NEWMAN: Her face was all battered and bruised, and it didn't look like her anymore. It was quite, um...quite difficult, and my brother found it really, really difficult too, seeing her like that.


JENNY NEWMAN: The same things must have been happening to Chris, but she's not going to tell us those things, and we have no proof of that. But...you can't...you don't do that to your children, no matter how annoying they are.

When we came back to Melbourne with Chris, we went straight to court, and I now have legal custody of Chris. When we brought Chris home, I had nothing. We had to stop and buy some nappies, we had to go get him a bed, drawers - you know, we had nothing. He would continually wrap himself up in things. He didn't like to be loose, so he would get blankets and wrap them around him. He would find anywhere to hide.


REBECCA NEWMAN: He would sit in the corner and look at everyone, but he would never make eye contact. And...he just didn't know what to do, 'cause he thought he wasn't allowed to do anything.


JENNY NEWMAN: And it took a lot of getting Chris to trust people and to realise that it's OK, you can run around and be a little person. You don't have to sit there. And that's...for a 2.5-year-old, it was astounding what he would do. You know, it was quite frightening to think that he was obviously that controlled that he just didn't think that he was allowed to do anything else.


REBECCA NEWMAN: He's a big handful. He runs up and down the house screaming. If he gets angry, you can't... ..it takes a while to get him happy again.


JENNY NEWMAN: I found it really difficult. I was going to paediatricians trying to get Chris helped, because he needed help.


DR PHILIP GRAVES: He looked autistic straight off, and she gave a history of fairly classic autism - he was playing on his own, he wasn't talking much, he wasn't using his language to communicate regularly, and he had a number of ritualistic, stereotypic characteristics, so I was fairly confident he was autistic.

JENNY NEWMAN TO DR PHILIP GRAVES: He's stopped switching the light on and off and he's stopped slamming doors, but he's doing all that again. Having more trouble getting him dressed and undressed. He just either refuses or it's a real battle, and...like, we're back to totally destroying the room, his bedroom.


JENNY NEWMAN: I had trouble with the Department of Human Services because they didn't want Chris to be autistic. For some reason - and I honestly can't figure out their logic - all they could say was that Chris was extremely traumatised. Now, that's absolutely correct, but that did not take away from the fact that he was autistic.

JENNY NEWMAN TO DR PHILIP GRAVES: They're getting special switches to go on some of the switches he won't leave alone because he keeps turning off the freezer, which isn't very helpful. And there's a safety issue, 'cause he keeps playing with some of the ones on the ground.


DR PHILIP GRAVES: They were treating him as someone who was different solely because of the horrendous experiences that he must have had. Some of that assumption was blaming her for not doing enough and for not spending enough time with him. And that wasn't fair, and I was keen to have it recognised that he had a brain-based disability and because of that, he was very difficult. We got another psychologist to see him and she was very comfortable with the diagnosis, as I was.


JENNY NEWMAN: The scale he came back on was very high, so we were right, we knew we were right. I just felt that the Department of Human Services and other services were putting pressure on me to give up work and to stay here and look after Chris. The realities were, one, I'd only just started in this job, and I didn't want to give up the job. I've...I've never relied on welfare and I didn't want to now. Two, where was I going to get an income from? How was I gonna support this household? I felt that my best option was to keep working.

I found all about autism, found out what was the best thing for him, and structure and routine are vitally important. So I booked him into a very small childcare centre and they've been fantastic.


DR PHILIP GRAVES: Chris going to a normal childcare centre is good for him. They're good role models, the other children. And even if he's playing apart and not appearing to interact, he'll be taking in what they're doing and learning from it, and wanting to be the same.


MEGAN NEWMAN: Oh, Rebecca and I are responsible for looking after him after school, before Mum gets home from work, and we sometimes get him dinner and bath him and put him to bed.


JODIE NEWMAN: When Mum's working six days a week, trying to give Chris the full care that he needs is really, really hard for her. A lot of it gets thrown back onto my sisters as well. They're still in high school. It's got to be tough on them too. But, yeah, Mum for sure. I don't know anyone who has as much on their plate.


JENNY NEWMAN: I feel extremely guilty about how much pressure the girls have had put on them since all this happened. I worry about them. They've got to be allowed to be teenagers.


JODIE NEWMAN: I wouldn't change what Mum's done or what we've all done for anything. I wouldn't change it. I couldn't imagine not having Chris in our lives now. He's a beautiful little boy and he needed our help, and...and we're his blood, you know?


SANDI WALTERS: Because Jenny is a grandparent and not a foster carer of Chris, the resources that are available to her are very limited. If she'd been a foster carer, she would have been entitled to respite care, a lot more financial assistance, and also more services than what we're able to provide to her at the moment.


JENNY NEWMAN: I just didn't fit in their little box of how their guidelines go. I'm just Nanna. Nanna doesn't fit anywhere. She's supposed to be there on the side, she's not supposed to be the key person.


NEWS REPORTER: A couple whose actions have been described by a judge as "terribly cruel" has been jailed for six years today for killing a baby girl.

NEWS REPORTER: Justice Ros Atkinson described the abuse as "unimaginable cruelty". The pair pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault and were jailed for six years.


JODIE NEWMAN: Knowing that they're gonna be out in six years, she's still at an age where she can go out and make babies. No, she shouldn't be allowed to do that.


JENNY NEWMAN: I am concerned about what she will do when she's released from jail, but as far as I can, I've tightened every loophole that I can find to make sure that she will have to battle me if...if she wants to get to Chris, 'cause I don't want to see that ever happen.

Simon hasn't coped well at all, and nor do I think he should have. He'd put all his love into his children and that was stolen from him. He regressed badly into himself and he stopped working. He doesn't talk to anyone. He hasn't even spoken to me about things that have happened.

While the childcare centre that Chris goes to is excellent, they cannot address the extreme needs of his autism, so it was obvious that I had to find somewhere else that could, a specialist school.


DIANE BAILEY-TRIBE: As soon as I saw him, I realised that he was affected quite severely by autism. He started at the beginning of this year with us at Irabina. The research tells us that we can make significant differences with 15 contact hours a week. At the moment, Chris is getting 5.5 hours a week in our service here. What we need to be doing for Chris is working on things like his compliance skills, because at the moment, he's dropping to the ground if he doesn't want to do something, and that's fine at 4, but it won't be fine at 15.


JENNY NEWMAN: It's a slow process for Chris to start to learn from here because he is non-verbal. It's a different life altogether and he's got to learn a lot of new things. Financially, having Chris living here has been huge. I've lost a lot of work time - all the trips to court, childcare, all the expenses at Irabina. These are going to be long-term expenses with Chris. The girls have missed out on a lot since Chris has come here because I just can't stretch to all those different levels.

I want to just fix this problem in the best way that I can, so I'm organising a fundraiser.

Chris is not eligible for victims of crime compensation. The Queensland Government gave us enough money to bring Beanca home and bury her. But there was things like all the air fares up to the court cases, accommodation. All of these things SHOULD have come under compensation, but they haven't - they just don't acknowledge them at all.


CHRIS MURPHY: Because the crime took place in Queensland, Chris Newman is only entitled to the 6,000. In Victoria, if the same thing would have taken place, it would've been 50,000. The geographic location within the country can make such a vast difference to the care of a child in need.


MEGAN NEWMAN: The auction night was really successful. We raised about 20,000. It's gone straight into his trust fund, which will be really good for when we need some money for him, for his schooling and stuff.


JENNY NEWMAN: I don't know how long I'll be around. I don't want Chris ending up in the department's little black book. I just don't want that to happen. I think he's been through enough. He at least deserves to have a good life and if I can do that, then that's my aim, so that he will be looked after financially. He's a different little boy now. He's bright, he's bubbly. Oh, he gets into more trouble than you can possibly imagine. But he's so sure of himself.


DR PHILIP GRAVES: He'll improve in all areas as he gets older, but his relative deficits will remain with him, that's the tragedy. And Jenny has had to live with losing one grandchild totally and having another grandchild have a severe disability.


JODIE NEWMAN: You want him to look you in the eye and know that he understands what you're saying. And I'm sure he does understand, but...he doesn't show it, and that's the sad thing. And you don't know how he's feeling about it all, and what he can remember.


JENNY NEWMAN: I think Chris knows, and at times often very much misses Beanca. Sometimes he'll just sit and look at her photo. As for his mum, Chris shows no sign of missing her at all. At this time, for Chris and Simon, it's better that Simon's a really fun thing in Chris's life. He just lights up when Simon walks in the door and they play and they have a good time together. And maybe, you know, five, six years time when Simon's a bit older, he can make some other decisions then, he can make some different choices, but at the moment, Chris's needs are just too great.


REBECCA NEWMAN: I love Chris heaps, he's gorgeous. He just puts a smile on your face whenever you see him.


JENNY NEWMAN: He is just absolutely beautiful, and there are a lot of joys, you know. He walks in this house and he makes our day. Want to hold my hand now? He's here for a purpose and it's a good reason. He's here to actually make us all stop and look at things a little bit differently.


CAPTION: Last week Jenny Newman was ‘let go’ by her employer because her family responsibilities conflicted with her work. She is now applying for new positions.

UPDATE: After our story aired, Jenny Newman was contacted by Sam White who offered her a placement with a Ray White franchisor within their corporate team. Jenny has accepted the offer.

In addition the company has also made a contribution to the Chris Newman Trust account.