‘Just Say Goodbye’ (January 2013 online edition)

DVRCV Discussion Paper No. 8The perception that men’s ‘victimisation’ in family law negotiationsresults in homicide was also evident in a familicide that occurred in Queenslandduring the writing of the conclusion to this discussion paper. Paul Rodgerskilled his ex-partner, a family friend, his five-year-old daughter and himself.A police Acting Superintendent told ABC Radio ‘Information we have receivedin interviewing a number of witnesses is that Mr Rogers understandably wasupset and concerned about not having access to his children’. 100Johnson’s research (2005, 2006), outlined earlier, examined cases of filicidesuicidein Western Australia where there had been a dispute about custody oraccess to children before the filicide. She found the killings were related more toseparation than to a custody or access dispute. She argues that ‘a dispute aboutcustody and access could possibly be another manifestation of the perpetrator’sinability to accept separation from their partner or to relinquish control of hispartner and/or children’ ( Johnson 2006:457). Other research has shown thatperpetrators of domestic violence can continue to exercise control over theirex-partners and children through ongoing litigation over parenting ( Jaffe et al2003).Johnson identifies a number of misconceptions about fathers who killchildren after separation which she found were disproved by her research.The misconceptions outlined by Johnson (2005) are that the following factorscontribute to men’s actions in killing their children.Disputes in the Family CourtJohnson (2005) found that only one of the seven cases in her study involved acurrent dispute in the Family Court. Of the cases outlined in this discussionpaper, although several appeared to involve conflict or resentment over access tochildren, only the cases of Jayson Dalton and Arthur Freeman occurred in thecontext of current Family Court negotiations.Women exaggerating violence in the Family CourtRather than being exaggerated, Johnson found that family violence was underreportedto the courts and the police by female victims (2005). This is alsoevident in Jayson Dalton’s case, outlined earlier.Being denied contact with childrenIn Johnson’s study, the men who killed their children did in fact have contactwith them. Six of the seven fathers in her study had contact with their childrenand killed them during contact. In the remaining case, the father refused tohave access visits with his children despite being encouraged and supported100 ABC News (2011b).60