Little girl thrown off Westgate Bridge

[TheMasterOfOrion]

horrible story, RIP to the little girl

 

[Ashu]

Some people disgust me. I'd rather see someone throw themselves over a bridge than someone else, especially a child.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Reports are still sketchy, naturally, but there are mentions of divorce procedings between the parents. If true, it is one more notch in the ill that children are so often made weapons and victims in such things. I could almost wish that if divorce procedings are opened the children are automatically removed till the parents can prove they are not complete assholes.

He is what the situation seemed to have been

It is understood that Mr Freeman and his estranged wife had shared access to their children before he headed to England for work last year for a few months.
The children then went to live full-time with Mrs Freeman and it is believed she wanted to keep it that way when he returned so their lives would not be disrupted.
But The Australian understands Mr Freeman did not agree and wanted a return to earlier contact arrangements involving his daughter and two sons.
The couple reached a compromise on Wednesday that increased his access to the children.

I gather he ended up with, more or less, joint custody.

 

[Ashu]

The court granting joint custody doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of him snapping. Divorces arent easy, no matter the outcome, and no one knows what exactly was going on in his mind. Just the emotional tension and stress couldve been enough to make the man snap, and believe that he was being robbed of everything, even though in reality he wasnt.

The courts themselves didn't do anything wrong, and did what they had to do. Sometimes, these types of things can't be forseen, and even still can't be prevented.

 

[JuanBolio]

He was not mentally fit to be interviewed, and his lawyers said he could not appear in court because he was suicidal and in an "acute psychiatric state".

I say take him back to the very same spot on the bridge and accommodate him.

 

[Captain X]

Jesus H. Christ. What makes people like this girl's father tick? Actually it's probably best if we don't know.

I think last year there was a man who not only brutally beat his son to death, but physically assaulted anyone who attempted to intervene, and it took a number of police officers to restrain him, but by then the kid was dead. There are definitely some fucked up people in this world.

 

[Mitty]

We simply can not believe this. It's just so, so horrible.

I live in the same suburb as the man. He could leave streets away from me.

I do regular bike rides that pass through Westgate Park, which is under the Bridge. At least twice while doing this I've passed by Police and Paramedics either fishing someone out of the water or scraping them off the ground under neath. Apparently (though it's not a publically available statistic) there is an average of one suicide every three weeks on the Westgate. In fact the partner of a lady I work with jumped about 15 years ago.

Also, during construction, part of the bridge collapsed and killed approximately 30 men.

Personally I think they should build a tunnel under the river and bulldoze the thing. I've never liked it, it's ugly and dangerous. It's brought pain and dispair to so many. They're now talking about putting barriers ups (like they did on Sydney Harbour Bridge after the suicide of two teenagers).

Too little to late.

I can't believe this happened in my city.

 

[Captain X]

The Golden Gate Bridge apparently has the same issue with suicides, and quite a bit of controversy has been kicked up by someone who filmed a lot of them and made a documentary out of it. There's been talk for a long time about putting up barriers, but usually there's enough whining about cost, aesthetics, and a general lack of sympathy for suicides that keeps anything from being done.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It looks like the Premier will fast-track the installation of barriers.

Why wasn't this done after a young mother jumped off the bridge with her baby son in June last year?

 

[Rii]

If folks are intent on killing themselves (or their children) they'll find a way to do it, barriers or no barriers. What's the point?

 

[Miss Chicken]

It has been proven that many such suicides or murders are done on the spur of the moment. The majpority of people are only temporary suicidal. When barriers are in place than the person might end up not committing suicide at all.

Read this article of how effective barriers can be

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Hmmm, very, very sad story. I do want to hear the other side though because it does look like a custody battle that went bad.

 

[SPOCKED]

Boston news covered this story last night with footage of the bridge. It's one thing to hear about this and quite another to see it. The whole thing is crazy. What could this guy have possibly been thinking??? And he had two boys in the back - did they see this?? Did this cowardly bastard think he was going to get away with it?? It kills me to think about what this innocent child went through.

 

[RJDiogenes]

He's obviously insane. Those two boys are lucky to be okay.

 

[Miss Chicken]

In seems that Freeman might have been planning to throw all three children off the bridge. It has been reported that several motorists stopped and one woman, when she realised what had happened, got out of her car and ran towards Mr Freeman shouting. Seeing her approaching him Freeman got back into his car and sped off.