iHeart Upper HunterThe Porter Family spent many years in the Muswellbrook region, but a move to Orange 5 years ago, led to an event so tragic, a mother is only now able to speak about it. Rebekah Porter is urging her old home town to support her petition to the NSW Parliament, changing laws around the rights of young murder victims, like her own 10-year-old daughter Bridgette.
My heart, Upper Hunter.
I wish she could have died in any other way. I hoped that it could be an accident, a drowning, a car crash, an illness, any any other way. It's just horrific. It's like something out of a horror movie.
Hello, I'm Darren Katrubi. This episode centers around the ongoing grief of a family that would be well known to many of us here in the Upper Hunter. The Porter family, Rebecca Dominic and their children. The kids born and raised in Musselbrook until a work opportunity saw the family move away to Orange. Life there changed dramatically, a marriage breakdown, and then, in twenty twenty, a tragedy no one could comprehend. Ten year old Bridget Porter or Biddy to those who loved her, was brutally murdered while staying at a nearby property. Her killer a fourteen year old girl. Now, under new South Wade law, the name of a child murder victim cannot be published or broadcast without the consent of their senior next of kin, such as the parents. So for us to legally be able to broadcast this episode, we begin with formally seeking permission from her mother, Rebecca Porter, Rebecca, do you, as the senior available next of kin and mother of Bridget Biddy? Porter provides your full consent for two and M Power FM and the iHeart Upper Hunter podcast to publish information about Biddy and her image under section fifteen E of the Children's Criminal Proceedings Act of nineteen eighty seven New South Wales fifteen E Exception where child deceased.
I do, Darren, I give permission?
Yes, thank you. Now this division doesn't prohibit the publicational broadcasting of a name of a deceased child with the consent of a senior available next of kin of the child. As we just explained is Rebecca, we needed to do that. We don't break any laws and we'll come back to all that a little bit later. But Rebecca, you and your family would be familiar to many of our listeners here in the Upper Hunter. Can you tell us about life in Musclebrook.
Yeah, so I moved to Musselbrook when I was about twelve. Darren and I lived there pretty much, you know. I moved away a few times, but pretty much lived there consistently till about twenty seventeen. All my children were born in Musselbrook, including Bridget.
What was life like here in Musselellbrook for you.
I was just busy a lot of memories of just growing up, going to school there, getting married, having my family working, taking my kids to school, just a normal mum and family life. And yeah, I really enjoy country life. So it was a good place to live.
So why the move town towards Orange?
So I moved to Orange in twenty seventeen because my husband Dom Biddy's dad, I was transferred here with his job at the bank where he worked.
Life in Orange is similar to Musselbrook, I suppose to both you know, hardy country towns.
Exactly, both country towns, both country life, which is what I enjoy and what I like.
What lead you to leave your daughter with the family of ultimately your daughter's killer.
That was a place where my children had always gone when I went to work. It was a place that they would usually go off and go in the school holidays to stay, and it was a safe place for them. It was a happy and fun place with lots of animals and just people that they really knew and trusted around them.
So obviously the time you dropped her off before her death wasn't the first time. It was somewhere she'd been many times.
It's somewhere she'd been many many times before, somewhere I'd been many many times before, and somewhere that my other children, who were Biddy's older siblings, had been many many times before.
Did you know before dropping her off that the fourteen year old girl had openly been discussing killing people like a parent and had a collection of knives which she all had pet names for them, and even an acts called Tommy.
I had absolutely no idea, Darren, And that's one of the most upsetting things about one of the most upsetting things is just the fact that people I trusted didn't tell me these things, and they didn't let me know that I was sending my daughter to a place that was potentially very unsafe. If I had known about all of that, the knives and thoughts about killing people, I would have never ever sent Biddy there.
The fact that the parents and others such as school and so forth knew about this as well must have just hit you very hard as well.
It does. I feel like people have a duty of care, I guess, to disclose things that could potentially harm your child if you're leaving your child with them. So I feel, yeah, let down, beyond letdown.
The details of the crime itself are nothing short of brutal, and we don't want to go there, and they're suppressed by the courts anyway. But I've got to ask, so, Rebecca, does the way in which Biddy die does that add an extra layer ten layers, two thousand million layers of trauma on top of what trauma you obviously feel just by losing a child.
It certainly does, Darren, and I couldn't say it better myself. It's about two hundred million layers of trauma. That's it. On I wished when I found out that Biddy had died. I wish she could have died in any other way than this. I hoped it could be an accident, a drowning, a car crash, an illness, any other way. It's just horrific. It's like something out of a horror movie. And I still can't process it to this day.
The toll on the Porter's family life is beyond comprehension. Biddy's father has spoken about dealing with PTSD and mum Rebecca still refers to the event to something akin to an outer body experience.
There's been lots of times when I haven't actually been able to function. I went into deep shock for the first six weeks after Biddy was killed, and I have no memory of that time. My partner actually had to dress me. My brain shut down. I couldn't remember how to do just the most basic things that we do. I couldn't function on a basic level. And then eighteen months later I had a complete mental breakdown and I had to have a stay in a mental health facility for six weeks, and then I was diagnosed with PTSD and major depression from what's happened, and I haven't been able to return to work ever since. And it's been a really, really big struggle. It's absolutely destroyed my life and destroyed my mental health, and there's been lots of times when I just haven't been able to even get out of bed or practice self care. So it's certainly been a very devastating and horrific journey for me.
So at the time, were you given much support? Obviously you were dealing with police and so forth in terms of.
Mental health support for victims services. Being a part of that system really makes me realize in major need of reform. Victims of serious crime need a lot more funding and a lot more supports. Living in a regional area, I couldn't get access to a psychologist unless it was over the phone, which was completely inadequate for the level of trauma that i'd been through. The recognition payment of seven and a half thousand dollars is ridiculous for such a serious crime, and you know its impact. And the cherry on top is that if Bridget had lived but just been wounded, I would have been able to access twenty thousand dollars worth of loss of income. But because she died, I wasn't able to access that, which would have really really helped when you know, it help any parent after they've lost their child because they can't go back to work. It just gives them that space to be able to stay home and recover before they can go back to work. But yeah, I definitely I think victim services needs to be reformed and that's what we're petitioning for in our parliamentary inquiry.
Do you still feel Bridget's presence with you?
Because of my trauma, I've spent actually a lot of time. I couldn't even look at photos of her for about a year, and I'd have to push her thoughts of her out of my mind because of how painful her loss was to me and how devastated I was about what had happened to her. So it's not as simple as just going I feel her around me. It's painful to lose her, if that makes sense, and I often try and avoid thinking about her too much. I'm getting better now. I can look at photos now, and I've set up a special room for her, and i can listen to some of the songs that she liked. But yeah, it's it's hard to explain how painful it is and what you do to cope.
She was an entertainer, wasn't she.
Yes, Yes, she's a very sweet girl. She's just a little free spirit, very beautiful, sweet girl. She was never any trouble and she wasn't naughty. She was such a good little girl and just beautiful.
Next time I heard Upper Hunter, what happened to Biddy's killer and what the Porters want the Upper Hunter community to do to help them. I heart Apper Hunter, I heart Aper Hunter. I'm Darren Katrubi, and we continue now our conversation with Rebecca Porter, a Musclebrook mother of ten year old Biddy porter murdered four years ago in a case so horrific details remain under a suppression order. Biddy's killer was arrested a few hours after the crime, and in twenty twenty one was found guilty of murder but not criminally responsible. She's now being treated in a forensic health facility and her identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
What actually happened to her was that she was dealt with with it's called Act proven but criminally not responsible, and then she's under the care of the what's called the Mental Health Review Tribunal in a forensic mental health facility.
So I understand she's already been out on some day releases. Were you consulted on that or get a chance to sort of give your thoughts.
We were able to make submissions where we said we definitely did not and we were at one million percent posed to her having any day release. We don't believe that the community would be happy about that, and we believe that the community would object to having someone so dangerous less than three years after they committed such a terrible crime being released into public places where other children play. So we were allowed to make submissions, but they were not at all listened to or heeded by the Mental Health Review trebunal.
So you're able to even go to these hearings or whatever it is they have, or they just send you an email saying, by the way, this is what we've done.
So we're only allowed to attend. They give us four weeks notice and then we're only allowed to attend via audio visual link. But what we've experienced is that audio visual link is of extremely poor quality, so we can hardly hear most of the time. It's nearly impossible to get transcripts. They make it very difficult for us to get them, and they treat us with a lot of disrespect as victims. And they yeah, they certainly aren't victim. They are not a victim centered or organization.
The death was four years ago, So why does Rebecca feel the need to come forward now.
I believed that the complex nature of the suppression order made me believe that I wasn't actually able to speak Bridget's name, And when I did ask the DPP, I emailed them to ask how could I say my daughter's name, say on my Facebook page or if I went to a rotary club meeting, And then the answer that came back to me was quite complex, so I didn't actually understand that with people could actually tell Bridget's story with my permission. So that's why it took Channel seven's lawyers a lot of work and a lot of fighting to even tell that story and for them to let us know that we could actually use her name and show her image. So that's why it's taken me four years to tell her story.
With this in mind, the Porter family, through this interview, is reaching out to their many friends and the wider Upper Hundred community to support a petition to the New South Wales Parliament to change laws that Rebecca considers disrespectful to young murder victims and their families.
Really really love them to support us by signing the petitions. They can go to Advocacy Australia's website and find them there. And what we're asking for is we're asking for inquiries into the DPP and the Mental Health Review Tribunal. We'd just like them to be more transparent and accountable systems, and we're also asking for reform for victim services and we want to make sure that these changes happen so that no family has to go through what we've gone through in losing Biddy, so it would be amazing if we could get I think we're just over halfway there. If we can get those ten thousand or so more signatures, that would just mean the world to us and would really really honor Biddy's memory.
And do you want a coronial inquiry as well? I understand that hasn't occurred either.
Yes, that's one of the things that we are asking for in Parliament, and we are asking for We've written a letter to the coroner asking for a coronial inquest because we do believe that there are questions to be answered about how preventable this crime was.
And have you had a response from the coroner yet. We have.
We're just in the early stages and they're looking into it for us, but we did receive very polite response from the coroner.
Yes, it sounds like in various facets of what you've come up against, you've had to deal with multiple systems that don't put people first.
That's exactly right, Darren. Unfortunately, after losing Biddy, it feels like we've just been kicked to the ground again and again and again by institutions that we thought were there and designed to protect the community and protect victims and be there for the purposes of justice. But it seems they're more worried about protecting the killer. And there needs to be transparency and there needs to be accountability and currently they're just isn't that And that's what we want Biddy's legacy to be.
To sign the petition, go to the Advocacy Australia website which has more information and links. You might also start seeing posters up on local shop windows in Musclebrook with all the details as well. Australians are known for helping their own in times of need. The porters are hoping they can rely on the Upper Hunter to help pressure the government and the state's parliament to give Biddy the justice she deserves. I'm Darren Katruvi. See you next time. iHeart Upper Hunter.
