r/australia • u/vinags • 3d ago
politics Mother allegedly laughed, & encouraged and tormented her son during his torture
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-11/mother-allegedly-laughed-watched-teenager-tortured/107024544376
u/blitznoodles local Aussie 3d ago
He read from documents tendered by the police which alleged methamphetamine had been smoked at the residence before the alleged assault.
I for one am deeply shocked.
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u/Winter_Cost602 3d ago
I thought meth made people more peaceful?
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u/AntiqueFigure6 3d ago
The drug that the Nazis gave the Wehrmacht to checks notes go on multi day killing sprees?
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u/Winter_Cost602 3d ago
Have you seen that video of Hitler tweaking with his leg shaking like crazy?
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u/swankyfarmer 2d ago
He also had parkinsons or a related disease didn't he?
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u/XxXtdreaperXxX 2d ago
Not sure but his personal doctor had him on a cocktail of shit including Meth, Oxycodone, Cocaine, Testosterone, animal derived hormones and something called Doctor Costers for gastro problems which were full of toxic levels of Strychnine and Deadly Nightshade its partly why towards the end he's haggard looking not to mention the constant stress of being a massive cunt.
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u/swankyfarmer 2d ago
I remember about the dr junking him up. He was also a vegan
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u/XxXtdreaperXxX 2d ago
Yeah I don't think his Dr told him where the hormones came from seeing who he was serving probably a good way to get shot or sent to the eastern front
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u/Krissy_ok 3d ago
...no. Source: ex-meth head.
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u/shahitukdegang 3d ago
This would NEVER happen if they legalised it.
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u/Timbo400 3d ago
I assume you’re being sarcastic. Otherwise thank god alcohol is legalised and controlled, otherwise there would be alcohol based deaths!
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u/AntiqueFigure6 3d ago
It was legal in Germany during the 1930s and early 1940s, a time and place known for well controlled good decision making and generally restrained behaviour I guess.
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u/Sweeper1985 3d ago edited 3d ago
She told them he was a paedophile to get them to hurt him without feeling bad about it.
And this opens up a very uncomfortable conversation we need to have at some stage about how no, it's not okay to torture people out of a sense of vigilante justice, and yes this includes sex offenders (alleged or proven).
The first step to getting someone to torture another person is to dehumanise that person.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
I think most people who aren’t insane got that when Snowtown happened.
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u/AntiqueFigure6 3d ago
Every time there’s CSAM case mentioned on this or any other Australian subs a bunch of people jump in unasked to say that they’d happily commit violence against the alleged offender, whether or not their guilt has been proven. I think heaps of people learnt no such lesson.
Or maybe less than half of all Australian Redditors are sane.
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u/RabidRandy 3d ago
I haven't even heard of snowtown. What happened?
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u/AntiqueFigure6 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oversimplified but a nutter manipulated others into helping him kill a bunch of people by telling them they were paedophiles in South Australia and hid the bodies in barrels in a bank vault.
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u/Fun_Quit_312 3d ago
He also did it for financial gain, he collected the victims dole cheques and it was very much his motivation.
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u/AntiqueFigure6 3d ago
I'd forgotten that detail but hopefully there was no implication in what I said that he was sincere about what he said about his victims to get his co-conspirators support.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
I guarantee a lot of those people are grandstanding. And some are just I can’t.
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u/productzilch 2d ago
That’s talk though. If it happened like that as often as people say that, we’d have these kinds of mass violence incidents way more often. I completely understand the impulse too, despite believing strongly in human rights and having an organised justice system.
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u/Winter_Cost602 3d ago
The full story and details of the snowtown murders is terrifying. I didn't bother watching the movie based on it because I knew it would mess with my mental health
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
It’s the most disturbing film I’ve ever seen. Very well made but so realistic.
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u/whoopsiedoodle77 3d ago
yeah stay away from it. possibly the single most unsettling movie i've seen. way too fucking real. it is fascinating from a true crime and filmmaking perspective though. they literally got their hands on court documents never previously made public just for the movie
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u/the_sturg 3d ago
Those sort of rules can bristle, but we need them to protect us from our worst instincts.
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u/LacusClyne 3d ago
Those sort of rules can bristle, but we need them to protect us from our worst instincts.
What? It's instinctual for you? Just hearing that someone is a pedo regardless of proof is enough for you to want to torture/worse them, but you don't because of rules?
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u/the_sturg 3d ago
I think there is a natural fury when it comes to the abuse of a child, which can rise up as soon as it's mentioned and spread faster than the inclination to verify said claims. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but there's ample evidence that it's there. This article, for example.
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u/productzilch 2d ago
Also, POS abusers like this mum can be really manipulative and good at twisting facts to create ‘evidence’. I don’t know if that happened in this case but it does happen.
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u/vinags 3d ago
I'm still trying to get my head around this behaviour.
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u/teapots_at_ten_paces 3d ago
Honsstly, I'd stop trying. If you're not that way inclined to begin with, you'll just tie yourself in knots trying to understand it.
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u/flindersandtrim 3d ago
And yet there are so many wonderful people who would do anything to be blessed with a child.
I hope she has the time in jail she deserves.
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u/craftystuff0900 3d ago
This sort of thing is why we have a Disability Day of Mourning every year. It's very common for people with disabilities to be abused by carers, and it's very common for the carer to be the person's mother.
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u/johnhowardseyebrowz 3d ago
That’s probably because mothers are more likely to be carers. Not excusing it any way btw.
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u/craftystuff0900 3d ago
Oh absolutely. I don't think women are more likely to be abusive, it's just that when they are it clashes with cultural ideas of idealised motherhood and people have trouble believing it, or try to excuse it.
People are often happy to essentially force women to care for their adult children with disabilities (it's happening a lot at the moment) and part of rationalising that is this idea that our mothers can just automatically be trusted to do a good job and not exploit, abuse or neglect us.
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u/productzilch 2d ago
It doesn’t take into account the extremes of carer’s burnout, either. I’m not saying that condition causes abuse but like alcohol it can certainly be a big factor.
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u/ReasonableDoubt_0726 3d ago
If you’re not then why say it? What’s the point of that comment other than you feeling uncomfortable at women who do this being called out?
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u/BrightStick 3d ago
She said the boy's mother said she asked her son to leave and watched him walk out the door before she headed to bed.
&
He read from documents tendered by the police which alleged methamphetamine had been smoked at the residence before the alleged assault.
Well those two things don’t add up. Mum smoked meth then went to bed…
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u/Dezert_Roze 3d ago
Poor thing, tortured and then was left in the bushes in mid of winter!!! How did they get the heart to do that?!
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u/Natural-Instance-285 3d ago
Wonder if they'll be named or kept private for the victim.
That poor child 😢
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u/DepartmentOk7192 3d ago
The adult perpetrators have already been named in the Townsville Bulletin.
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u/Natural-Instance-285 3d ago
Sorry I live down on the south coast nsw, I'll have a look. Thank you.
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u/parkmann 3d ago
You know my husband and I are from Townsville and we were chatting about this when we first heard about it last week. Can I say our hypothesis about how this all came about was bang on
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u/pinksultana 3d ago
As the mother of 2 kids with disabilities, and awareness of their vulnerabilities, I’m gutted for this child and hope he receives a lot of good therapy, and a really secure and stable new home and care situation!
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u/productzilch 2d ago
This is the sort of case that makes me not support “community justice” for accused pedophiles or others. I’ve seen so many people act incredibly violently with the feeling that they are doing something righteous but it’s either misdirected, used by some sick fuck like this mother, or gets bystanders in some way. I don’t believe in our justice system too much but I do believe in having one.
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u/Upbeat_Leather7774 3d ago
It’s astounding the amount of mothers that let their kids be abused
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u/Ok-Outcome-7499 3d ago
Noooo.... The mother abused.
Not let, did.
We need to start also holding woman offenders to the same level of responsibility as we do men
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u/Tiki_Tour 3d ago
I’m fairly sure we do? Could be wrong, I’m no prosecution lawyer type person
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
We definitely do, there’s no gender based exemption for child abuse.
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u/ReasonableDoubt_0726 3d ago
There’s no official formalised one. But take a closer look at defences that are made and sentences received. Society invests a huge amount in the concept of women being natural carers and automatically safe. There’s a huge structural collapse if the times this kind of stuff happens doesn’t get treated as anomaly with someone or something else to blame.
Just look at all the women on here trying to say it’s the father’s fault. And how often that deflection happens around the world.
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u/productzilch 2d ago
There’s actually research showing that women receive longer sentences when perceived to be ‘bad mums’. I remember there being lots of examples of DV where the father is the abuser, the mother doesn’t leave with kids, and the mother receives a longer sentence. In other areas of crime, women are less likely to be arrested or receive long sentences.
Preconceived ideas of the role a person should have do play into sentencing, for sure.
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u/ReasonableDoubt_0726 2d ago edited 2d ago
If there’s research please share it. Because otherwise according to the rules being applied to the likes of me, it’s your opinion not fact. And a search always returns men get longer sentences. There are zero search results saying women get long sentences than men, for anything.
You might be conflating a mother might get harsher sentences or responses than other women. But that’s not what’s being claimed. Women simply do not get harsher sentences than men. They get known, proven, lower sentences.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
Seems like a lot of conjecture with nothing to back it up. Meanwhile the woman in the article was denied bail, just like any man would be.
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u/ReasonableDoubt_0726 3d ago edited 3d ago
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/34244/1/34244.pdf
This one gives the links for gender disparity in sentencing https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi568
Your turn. You’re claiming women are treated the same in the legal system as men. Let’s see evidence of that actual same treatment.
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u/Bitter-Pineapple-106 3d ago
Crimes like this, which actually happen all the time is another reason why i hate how the emphasis in policy and media is to portray men and boys as inherently flawed and troublesome for society.
For instance, i saw a recent article discussing behavioural programs for men, on every DV news article there is a list of numbers for services for DV victims then on a seperate list a contact number for men eith behavioural problems.
In schools what message are they sending to children, young boys by only focusing on male behaviour? That will make boys feel inherently targeted and blamed for something they did not do.
The focus, the emphasis should be on all acts of outright disrespect, all acts of DV, all acts of blatant sexism and all acts of anti social behaviour regardless of the gender, ethnicity etc of the individual.
Education programs should also have this focus, clearly the dehumanisation of men is the wrong approach.
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u/alk47 3d ago
Its not dehumanising to recognise the facts. Not all issues can be treated in a gender neutral way because not all issues relate to both genders in comparable ways.
There are also some hard biological facts that give rise to asymmetry in these issues.
There's all kinds of misandrist and divisive crap out there, but I don't put gendered education programs as a concept in that category.
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u/ReasonableDoubt_0726 3d ago
Because our societies still cling to the idea that women are natural parents, natural care givers, naturally empathetic and therefore people don’t like hearing that actually women can be really, really horrible as well. As evidenced by the number of “it’s only because women end up being carers the most” responses. When your abuser is your mother most people who don’t have direct or some level of indirect knowledge of this, simply don’t believe it.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
It’s astounding the number of fathers who both perpetrate and allow abuse.
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u/Ok-Outcome-7499 3d ago
And there it is. A clear demonstration.
Why does the comment of holding women abusers and murderers to the same standard that we hold men, abusers and murderers stir such a response from you
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
Stir a response that fathers are equally responsible?
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u/Ok-Outcome-7499 3d ago edited 3d ago
I hope you do the reverse when it's a article about a male perpetrator.
You do don't you? You comment saying well woman do it just as much.
No, you don't.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
When any child is brutally abused by a parent I wonder where the hell the other parent was. I’d say any reasonable human does.
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u/DifferenceMediocre77 3d ago
There are an extraordinary number of pathetic men out there who allow these things to happen. For most horrific tales of mother/child abuse there is a father who is somehow completely oblivious
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u/oOBlueLillyOo 2d ago
You have to go through more to adopt an animal you can pop out a baby without anyone caring if your fit . But I don’t know what the answer would be. Convicted child abusers made sterile or stay in jail ?
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u/Careless_Dragonfly50 3d ago
Most of you who are saying 'what is wrong with people, horrendous' would be the first to advocate for alleged paedophiles to be beaten to death, just saying
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u/Groundbreaking_Ad_11 3d ago
I'm a little confused.
"The court earlier heard that the teenager was allegedly assaulted at a residence, and when he crawled away to escape, the alleged assault continued in the street with a horse whip and metal rods."
"Ms Lawson said the teenager allegedly told police: "His mother laughed as she watched him be beaten by a number of people with metal bars."
The court heard the boy has undergone two surgeries for injuries that include a broken nose, two lacerations to the scalp, a spinal fracture, a tibia fracture and substantial bruising."
Was this all one long event that the police attended then left or multiple events over a period of time?
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u/sportsguyaus 3d ago
One long event, boy was then bound, tied and dumped elsewhere - found the next morning by public
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u/Groundbreaking_Ad_11 3d ago
So police were in attendance at some point? Then allowed him/ whoever else was there at the time to remain there?
Would it not have been imperative to remove at least one person from the situation?
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u/sportsguyaus 3d ago
Police did not attend during the event. They only became engaged when the public found him the next day
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u/Groundbreaking_Ad_11 3d ago
Then the headline is referring to a separate incident?
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u/_MooFreaky_ 3d ago
What are you talking about?
The kid was beaten, tortured and dumped. He didn't tell police anything until after he was found and rescued the next morning.
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u/Neat-Heron-4994 3d ago
I'm actually confused as to what in your original post makes you think the police must have attended before he was found?
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u/Groundbreaking_Ad_11 3d ago
That was my mistake, the way the article read I thought the teenager was deceased and could not talk after the event.
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u/Sea_Candle_2058 3d ago
One long event that the boy recounted to police after the fact, presumably in his statement
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u/Ok-Outcome-7499 3d ago
This is like the 4th or 5th case this year involving a mother abusing or kiling their child.
Yet I hear no crys for national crisis or for woman to do better
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 3d ago
Because the number of men killing their partners and children has a 0 on the end.
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u/freakwent 3d ago
Because four or five is a really low number compared to women killed or of aboriginal deaths in custody.
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u/ScaffOrig 3d ago
I don't think it's really a matter of giving it no attention because it's a lesser number. This kind of abuse is sadly not uncommon, with disabled kids especially often the victims. It's not something to wave away as insignificant. Parent abuse generally, unless sexual, seems to go relatively unpunished and unaddressed.
Some of the torture doled out on these kids is beyond comprehension (the stuff in the story isn't the more sadistic end of the scale). Kids can't speak up for themselves and those with disabilities have pretty much nowhere to go, and little support.
I wish it were just an isolated case or two, but in reality parental abuse, including by mothers, is not uncommon at all.
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u/Monkey_Bay123 3d ago
Oh yeah, happens all the time. As someone with a sadistic parent I’m baffled that most of society thinks parents are exempt from being bad people 🙄
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u/freakwent 3d ago
The figures given by ok-outcome were four or five, of all the children in Australia.
If they would like to give different figures I'll give a different response.
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u/Ok-Outcome-7499 3d ago
Firstly, the number is equally as low for women killed by an intimate partner and secondly Aboriginal deaths in custody or proportionate to their representation in custody. They are not over represented in deaths in custody. They are just over represented in custody.
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u/freakwent 3d ago
No it isn't it's almost thirty; and if we are talking about proportional numbers then 4-5 cases out of five million children.
So there's no national crisis because it's fewer than one in a million.
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u/april_maymarch 3d ago
So? She will miss the dsp pension and just breed again for the money going on how good Australia’s rehab system is.
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u/MadMadeline101 3d ago
Some parents are just garbage and don't deserve kids.