Humble servant of the Nation

Another child death, another failure of the system and society

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William O’Sullivan beat his 22-month-old stepson, Mason Lee, to the point where Lee died from his injuries some five days later.

Details of 37-year-old O’Sullivan’s sentencing were released in the Queensland Supreme Court yesterday. He pleaded guilty to four charges, including manslaughter and cruelty to a child under 16-years of age.

O’Sullivan has been sentenced to nine years jail, six years of which are not subject to parole. With time served he may be out in four years.

The story of short, tormented life of Mason Lee is heartbreaking. He died of horrific injuries and in terrible pain.

In 2009, Heidi Strbak inflicted a series of fatal blows on her four-year-old son, Tyrell Cobb, in their Gold Coast home. Last year Strback was found guilty of manslaughter. She was sentenced to nine years in jail. She will be eligible for parole in 2021.

Full column here.

273 Comments

  • Wissendorf says:

    Dwight – the Miracle at Lambeau field! No walking on water or raising the dead, but no less miraculous. At the end of the 3rd quarter I was about to switch off and go for a fish, with GBP down 17 – 0 but I’m glad I didn’t. I hate the Bears; if ISIS had a team in the League I’d cheer for them if they played Chicago. I imagine your neighbors probably lodged a noise complaint with police. That was the best comeback I’ve seen in the NFL and one of the best in any sport. Amazing stuff. I have visions of you dancing down the streets of Cairns, cheesehead firmly in place and scaring the daylights out of small children with riotous whooping.

    • Dwight says:

      The Cheesehead gets a run at the local a few times a year for Monday Night Football games. Have a couple spares in case we make the Super Bowl and I have to throw a party.

      Rodgers showed why he’s the highest paid in the league.

      • Wissendorf says:

        His comeback after being golf-carted off in the first half was extraordinary. Clearly playing in pain, and unable to pass long, he engineered ‘soft hands’ plays that worked a treat and clearly caught the Bears off-guard. He must be nearing retirement – he’ll be tough to replace.

  • JackSprat says:

    We got given this fan that allows one to control it my your smart phone – don’t ask me why one needs to control a fan with a smart phone but you can.
    I was playing around with the router and decided to change its name – kind of a security thing to stop people from recognizing the type of router and doing nasty things.
    Every other device connected to the router was easy to change except this blasted fan which is still not set up after a couple of days.
    This kind of made us thinking about the “smart” house of the future where multiple devices are all talking to a router.
    What happens if you buy a new router – the easy way is to keep the same name but that means that the password never changes.
    One buys a new house with all of this set up – “what’s the name of your router mate and what’s the WiFi password” – yeah right.
    The router fails – well the fan does have a remote but after I changed the name of the router, it turned itself on along with the light – one could imagine a situation like the “Night in the Museum” movie with all appliances going off.
    Like most things electronic, when they go wrong they go wrong in multiples.
    Those lovely little switches that turn the lights on and off last about 20+ years- I wonder how long all this other stuff will last.
    I am sure that there is some expensive little device that all the “smart switches” talk to and it talks to the router around and I can expect what will happen there – “Sorry mate, you have to upgrade to the new version of the software and then we have to upgrade the software in all you appliances but we have a problem with that appliance – I suggest buying a new one.”

  • JackSprat says:

    Fascinating watching the different responses to Serena’s outburst on the court.
    The right wingers seem to say she was wrong, was losing, has a history of bad behavior when losing etc.
    The left seem to give a balanced point of view
    The tennis players say that she was badly done by.
    The public feel robbed having the match cut short.
    Me? The umpire is there to enforce the rules but is also responsible for keeping the tensions on the court at a reasonable level. To my mind, Ramos inflamed the situation. To penalize a player a game in a grand final says that it is all about Ramos.
    I doubt if he will umpire at another grand slam final again.

    • Trivalve says:

      Golly, I’m a RWNJ!

    • Milton says:

      Surely there would be a capable female umpire? Preferable Japanese, Afro-American.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      I just hope we are not seeing a Flo-Jo manifestation. That was all a bit strange. Not that I mind, it’s that sort of thing that makes tennis almost interesting enough to watch.

    • Dismayed says:

      I think there have been at least 2 very good examples of umpiring during the US open. I thought the intervention by the umpire with Kyrgios was OK. people pay to see the players perform, not tank. I think he did the right thing and delivered some much needed counselling. Likewise the umpire with Williams did the right thing and she abused him calling him a thief and then putting on one of the worst displays ever seen in sport and tried to use every discriminatory attack angle excuse she could think of. She was being beaten again by young Osaka who cleaned her up not so long ago and she lost the plot. Serena alone was responsible and OWES the young Naomi Osaka a massive apology.

    • Boadicea says:

      John McEnroe had a match forfeited once. Kicked off mid-game. Her behaviour was unacceptable. She was being coached – which is against the rules. Simple. She was getting walloped and didn’t like it. I am not extreme right, but I was a competitive tennis player. I understand where the umpire was coming from.

    • jack says:

      Not just Serena, but I can’t recall any tennis players bunging on a barney with the umpire when they are cruising to a win, it always seems to be a response to not being in a winning position, i.e. an opportunity to gee themselves up and maybe unsettle an opponent.

      I can’t see that S has anything to complain about, the coach put his hand up and said he was coaching, she did break the racquet and she was abusive, and the umpire applied the rules.

      That said, I don’t like umpires and refs who want to be the star of the show, and I can think of a few who need reminding of that in AFL and rugby, and in my view it would have been better umpiring if his response to the first tirade post penalty point was to say, right, you have had your say, the decision will stand, and remind her that the next step is a game penalty, then DQ etc

      But perhaps the umps are not allowed to do that these days.

      I did see an amusing take where the tennis authorities were taken to task for appointing an umpire without qualifications in Gender and Race Studies.

  • Ted Kravitz says:

    All you need to know about cutting the cheese Jack from the ABC website.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-10/fart-what-happens-when-you-hold-one-in/10222180

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Real men don’t hold ’em back! Any negative feedback, simply fix the offended party with a hurt look, a shrug of the shoulders and a haughty “what?”
      Look after your intestines and they’ll look after you.

  • Dismayed says:

    2 “liberal” woman in parliament today proved again that there is not much point in the conservative coalition having them there anyway. The 2 woman voted against debating their own bill. Disgraceful hypocrisy, they then had the audacity to talk about opportunism. FFS. this is the worst government ever seen in this Nation. The cons have proven again it is all about their toxic ideology above the National interest

  • Henry Donald J Blofeld says:

    Latest Newspoll, Mr Insider and a shocker for the Lib/Nat government led by Scott Morison, his 2nd in a row “Barry Crocker”. The Coalition is facing election wipeout.
    Turnbull the all time champ with 38 consecutive negative ones.
    https://tinyurl.com/ycxjbomj

  • Boadicea says:

    Pathetic to see Serena Williams play the gender card.
    She was getting walloped and spat the dummy. She deserved what she got.
    I feel really sorry for Osaka who looked up to Serena as a role model and was thrilled to be playing her.
    The USA crowd’s behaviour was disgusting too. The metoo stuff is way out of control there

  • jack says:

    If both the sentences handed down and the plea bargains are delivering out of results badly out of whack with public expectations then maybe it is because the legal eagles, including the judges, prosecutors and defenders, are seeing something different to what the general population is.

    Is there a pattern about the perpetrators that attracts sympathy or is seen as a mitigating factor?

    • Jack The Insider says:

      There were three in total but the one announced (it had been handed down some weeks ago but suppressed) last week contained no mitigating factors. O’Sullivan really is a dreadful human being. He only confessed by way of plea bargain. The injuries Mason Lee suffered were not from one blow or series of blows inflicted in one incident. It was protracted abuse over months.

  • Boadicea says:

    I’m sure Mr Bragg’s decision not to stand in Wentworth has more to do with not wanting to take a flogging rather than a desire to offer up his spot to a woman!!
    All things being equal, Kerryn Phelps should win the seat.

  • Razor says:

    Needless to say I’m no Adam Bandt fan but some people need to lighten up! The poor bugger is just proud of his missus for gods sake.

    https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/a-word-greens-mp-adam-bandt-used-to-describe-his-wife-has-upset-many/news-story/9fd1aa6be44437a6bd9004f48854a65f

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