New Study: Fathers do kill their kids just to hurt the moms

The article below covers a new study that gives us some data to refer to when stating what we have all known to be true for a few years:  Fathers who kill their kids do it out of revenge to the mom … usually for leaving them.  We have never argued that moms do NOT kill their kids, but have said that fewer of them do so and that they do so for different reasons than fathers that kill their children.  Finally someone completed a study on this and the below article gives the results.

 

Child killer study finds diverse motives for men and women

February 4, 2012

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/child-killer-study-finds-diverse-motives-for-men-and-women-20120203-1qxnz.html#ixzz1pCerEfRP

HE BECAME known as the Facebook killer because it was on the social networking site that he broadcast his intention to kill his daughter: ''Bout 2 kill ma kid,'' wrote Ramazan Acar shortly before he murdered two-year-old Yazmina in Melbourne in November 2010 by stabbing her repeatedly. But it was less the medium than the motive that defined his crime.

Soon after that message, he posted another intended for his ex-partner, Rachelle D'Argent: ''Pay bk u slut.''

A new study of child murders,

When No One Listens

This is EXACTLY what happens when no one listens to abuse victims!!  Educate yourself and others... I’m not feeling sorry for the abusers that this teen boy killed, I feel sorry for the boy.  For what HE had to endure before he finally broke and had to take matters into his own hands because NO ONE LISTENED all those years ago!!

From Dastardly Dads:

The mom lost custody of this boy nine years ago, right after she divorced the father. Her description of the marriage paints a distinct picture of a controlling abuser: Isolated her at home, wouldn't "allow" her to see friends. Strict "disciplinarian" who was "severe" with her and the child (i.e. physically violent). Unfortunately, Mom blames what she calls a severe depression for why she lost custody. In reality, feelings of hopelessness and despair are normal and predictable among abuse survivors--especially when the abuser goes on to take their children away from the mother and cut off all contact (must have total control, you know). And none of this can take place unless the courts aid and abet the abuser. But the article doesn't go into that....
And now the son is accused of killing his father, CHRISTIAN LIEWALD.
Who are the people who wouldn't listen to this mother? Let's name names, shall we?
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/29319392/detail.html
Homicide suspect's mother says warning signs were there
Posted: 4:51 pm EDT September 27, 2011
Updated: 6:20 pm EDT September 27, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The mother of a teenager charged with killing his father and stepmother says she could see trouble coming, even when he was a child.
Shelby Hodges told Eyewitness News that she has not seen her son, Matthew Liewald, for nine years, since she and her husband Christian Liewald divorced.
Early Monday morning police said Matthew shot and killed Christian Liewald and his wife Cassie at their home south of Pineville, and Hodges said she knew when she saw the story on the news that her son might have been involved.
"I saw it. I recognized the street name. I told my husband, I said, 'It's Matthew,'" Hodges said.
She held a picture of Matthew when he was a toddler and spoke about the boy's father, who had been severe with her and his son.
"(Christian) isolated me when I lived with him, when I was married to him. I wasn't allowed to see my friends," Hodges said.
She said Liewald took the same strict approach to discipline with Matthew, and when the couple divorced she lost custody of the boy because she was severely depressed.
She said that she was concerned when she heard that Christian Liewald and his wife Cassie had taken Matthew out of school and that his intense parenting may have pushed the teen over the edge.
"I think he snapped. I think he just had more abuse than he could handle, and I just hope that now someone will listen to me," she said.
"This is a mother's nightmare. If people had listened to me when I was begging them to help me, it wouldn't have gotten this far."

Fort Myers shooting suspect connected to 2009 murder

 

Connell Carroll, the suspect in both murders, is still at large.  There is a number at the end of the below news article to call if you have any information.  Please disseminate far and wide and bring this guy in this time, so that no more women are killed by him... and no more children left with out a mom because of him.

A woman has died after being shot in the leg during an argument on Sunday afternoon.

Fort Myers Police responded to a home on 1400 block of Brookhill Drive just before 4:00 p.m. on Sunday to find 22-year-old Nicole Smith suffering from the gunshot wound.

EMS responders were unable to stabilize her, and she died as a result of her injury.

Neighbors say Smith was holding her newborn when she was shot.

Fort Myers Police are looking for her boyfriend, 32-year-old Connell Carroll, saying he's wanted for second degree murder.

"Our investigation has revealed that the victim, Miss Smith, and her boyfriend, Connell Carroll, had gotten into an argument and she received a gunshot wound that ultimately led to her dying," said Detective Peter Tarman.

Connell Carroll was also connected to the murder of Danielle Blackburn on February 10th, 2009.

He was never arrested.

Danielle's family says they weren't shocked when they heard the news.

"I knew it was gonna happen. I've been telling people it was going to happen," says Danielle's father Don Blackburn.

Danielle was murdered while her daughter slept in the next room.

"He took two young mothers. That's two children without a mother," Don says.

Crysten Blackburn is Danielle's sister-in-law. She had met Carroll on several occasions and says he was quiet and reserved.

"Was he the type of person who would inflict harm on women? When I met him I came to talk to Danielle and he didn't leave the room when I was speaking to Danielle. He was next to her the entire time," she says.

After Danielle's murder, police couldn't find enough evidence to arrest Carroll.

Now, after another woman is dead, Danielle's family blames the judicial system.

Darin Blackburn, Danielle's brother, claims Carroll never completed a mandatory battery course that would have helped him.

"I told police that if they didn't do something it would happen again," he says.

Neither Danielle's nor Nicole's daughters were harmed during the shootings. Both are staying with family members.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Connell Carroll, you're asked to call the Fort Myers Police Department, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.

Fort Myers shooting suspect connected to 2009 murder - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida

“If I Killed You, I’d Get The Kids”: Women’s Survival, Child Custody, and Abuse « RightsForMothers.com

From:  http://justice4mothers.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/if-i-killed-you-id-get-the-kids-womens-survival-child-custody-and-abuse-by-men/

August 28, 2009

“If I Killed You, I’d Get The Kids”: Women’s Survival, Child Custody, and Abuse

Filed under: Child Custody, Child Custody Battle, Domestic Abuse, Domestic Relations, Domestic Violence, Family Court Reform, Family Courts, Family Rights, Human Rights, Husbands who murder wives, Intimate Partner Assault, Murdered Mothers, Parental Alienation Syndrome, parental alienation — justice4mothers @ 11:16 am

Here is an important paper by Colleen Varcoe and Lori G. Irwin titled “If I Killed You, I’d Get the Kids”: Women’s Survival and Protection Work with Child Custody and Access in the Context of Woman Abuse.” I am constantly amazed by men’s rights advocates, father’s rights folks and shared parenting people that “claims” of abuse by women in a relationship are generally false when so there so many women and children dying. They want to make it a “women’s” or “feminist” issue, when it is really a human rights issue. They try and draw the attention away from all the abusive fathers getting custody of children from moms with claims of so-called “parental alienation syndrome” and claim that it is the “radical” women’s groups that are debunking it. I find that interesting and their credibility lacking if they call the American Judge’s Association, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National District Attorney’s Association “radical women’s groups.” They have all discredited claims of “parental alienation” and “parental alienation syndrome.”

Here is an except of Varcoe’s and Irwins’s paper:

Child custody and access was the central concern for women with children who participated in Project Violence Free (PVF), a three-year study of formal systems’ (criminal justice, social assistance, and health care) responses to abuse by intimate partners. Although we proposed to study women’s experience with these specific “systems,” the women saw their experiences as similar across services, and talked about “the system” as a monolithic entity. The overarching theme identified through analysis of interview and documentary evidence from the women was that women struggle continuously to limit the violence in their lives and to “make the system work.” We identified four critical sites in which women did most of this work.

For all the women, economic survival was a central part of their struggle. For most women, seeking protection, particularly, but not exclusively, from the justice system, was part of their experience. For women new to Canada, working with issues of immigration overshadowed their other efforts. For the women with children, issues of child custody and access dominated and shaped their experiences.

This article focuses on child custody and access as one of the sites of women’s work in dealing with intimate partner violence. It is based on interview data from the women who were mothers and focus group data from service providers who work with such women as background. The interviews revealed a pervasive tension between obligations to maintain contact between children and their fathers, and obligations to protect children from harm. The purpose of this article is to describe how women work to negotiate formal systems in relation to child custody and access in the context of woman abuse, and how aspects of such systems are problematic. Our argument is that child custody and access processes provide opportunities for abusive partners to exert power and control over their partners and children, and that these opportunities are often supported by policies and practices of service providers.

To read the rest of “If I Killed You, I’d Get the Kids”: Women’s Survival and Protection Work with Child Custody and Access in the Context of Woman Abuse” by Colleen Varcoe and Lori G. Irwin, please click here.

“If I Killed You, I’d Get The Kids”: Women’s Survival, Child Custody, and Abuse « RightsForMothers.com

Ohio woman: I got away from serial killing suspect

I will limit my comments on this to two points I’d like to make...

The first being, this guy is the prime example why we need stronger laws and longer prison terms for sex offenders.

The second being, the police response to reports from the past victims and their families is a prime example why police need more training and to be held responsible for their negligence. 

CLEVELAND — Suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell seemed like a "civilized person" on the April evening that Tanja Doss went up to his third-floor bedroom for a beer — until, she said, he leapt up and began choking her and threatening to kill her.

The 43-year-old woman told The Associated Press on Thursday that she survived a night of terror through a combination of calm and cajoling, prayer and trickery. But when she escaped the next morning, she didn't tell police. Her past conviction on a drug charge, she said, made it unlikely they'd take her seriously.

"Now, I feel bad about it," she said, "because my best friend might be one of the bodies."

Police and a cadaver dog re-entered the home Thursday where Sowell apparently lived among the reeking, rotting corpses of 10 women and the paper-wrapped skull of another in a basement bucket. The ex-Marine, who served 15 years in prison for attempted rape, is being held without bail on five aggravated murder charges.

Just days after her own escape, Doss was helping search for her friend Nancy Cobbs. Now Cobbs is among about two dozen missing women whose friends and family fear fell victim to Sowell.

Only two victims have been identified so far — Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights and Telacia Fortson, 31, of Cleveland.

Doss believes she only narrowly escaped the fate of those dug up from Sowell's yard.

She had met Sowell in 2005, after his prison release, but didn't know the real reason for his sentence. She found him to be "a civilized person, sitting outside drinking beer, a nice person." So she didn't hesitate to join him for a drink.

"And then he just clicked. I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said. Shocked, Doss said she lay back and tried not to struggle. "He said, 'If you want to live, knock three times on the floor.' And I knocked on the floor."

Still holding her throat, he told her using several profanities that she could be "dead in the street" and no one would care.

Sowell made her strip and lay on the bed, she said, but did not attempt to rape her. Doss said she curled up in a ball and tried to talk him down, saying things like, "Why you gotta act like that?"

Then she prayed to herself, and eventually, both fell asleep. She awoke in the morning with Sowell acting as if nothing had happened, she said, asking whether she wanted something from the store.

She picked up her cell phone and pretended to call her daughter, then claimed her granddaughter had the flu. When Sowell left for the store, she went in the other direction.

She didn't report the confrontation because "my background ain't squeaky clean," she said.

Now, it's all she can think about.

"It goes through my mind all the time," she said. "Every time I think about it, I start shaking."

When Cobbs disappeared — four days after her 44th birthday on April 20 — Doss didn't think about Sowell as she helped search abandoned buildings and post fliers.

It wasn't until Monday, three days after bodies had begun turning up, that Doss finally went to police.

Sowell also faces charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping after a Sept. 22 attack on a woman at his home. A message left with the county public defender's office was not returned Thursday.

Near Sowell's home, a plywood memorial hangs from a chain link fence, the word MISSING stenciled in black. Five stuffed animals and an artificial rose adorn the sign, which holds fliers showing 13 missing women and three men.

The fliers reflects not just fears that their bodies might be on Sowell's property, but also community members' frustrations with how they say police treat missing-persons reports from their downtrodden neighborhood.

Some of the missing are women who lived on society's fringe. Some were active or recovering drug users. Some had gone to jail, producing criminal records their families believe are the reason police didn't take their disappearances seriously.

Cleveland City Councilman Zach Reed, at a rally with two dozen clergy members, said people should stop stereotyping those who might have ended up in Sowell's house of horrors.

"I want us to stop this conversation that they were crackheads, they were this and that," he said. "They were people."

Michelle Mason lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. After a few days of silence in October 2008, the family went to police.

"Because my sister had a prior arrest history, they kind of didn't take it seriously," Mary Mason said.

But Michelle Mason had stopped collecting and cashing her Social Security checks. Before her disappearance, she had just paid her rent and her cell phone bill. Her apartment was left as if she intended to return.

"We tried to convince them with everything in us that this was not normal, and they tried to convince with everything they had that it was," Mary Mason said.

On a second visit to police, Michelle Mason's sons were told there are "thousands of Michelles in the city," and that officers didn't have the time or the manpower to hunt for them all.

"It was taken almost as a joke, that she was just this kind of person. Her drug use was years behind her. But they pull her up on that computer, and they say, 'She's a nobody,'" Mary Mason said. "She's not a nobody."

Associated Press writers John Seewer and Tom Sheeran contributed to this report.

 

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The Associated Press: Ohio woman: I got away from serial killing suspect

Domestic violence before shooting | CJOnline.com

 

ANTHONY S. BUSH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

A Shawnee County Sheriff’s deputy walks around the house where Gerald S. Eberhardt, 51, was shot and killed on Sunday. The sheriffs department still has the house at 2835 S.E. Shawnee Heights Rd. taped off with crime scene tape as of 2 p.m. Monday.

 

Deputies dispatched 14 times this year to home where man was shot

By Ann Marie Bush

Created October 26, 2009 at 3:57pm

Updated October 27, 2009 at 12:10am

TECUMSEH -- Shawnee Heights Fire Department's water rescue team on Monday evening located a piece of evidence around Lake Shawnee involving a shooting death of a 51-year-old Topeka business owner, authorities said.

Gerald S. Eberhardt, who owned Wizz By Auto Sales in North Topeka, was pronounced dead Sunday morning at his home, 2538 S.E. Shawnee Heights Road, in southeast Topeka, said Sheriff Richard Barta. Two of his family members -- his wife, Michelle L. Eberhardt, 43, and her son Scott M. Mosher, 19, who lived with Gerald Eberhardt -- and Stephanie A. Menard, 21, of Topeka, were arrested Sunday evening.

On Monday, a fourth person, 20-year-old Derrick Dewayne Haase, of Topeka, was arrested. All four on Monday were charged with premeditated murder in the first degree, an off-grid person felony, and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder in the first degree, a severity-level 2 person felony.

Barta said Monday more arrests could be made.

"On the surface, it appears to be a domestic problem," Barta said Monday afternoon at a news conference.

Since January 2009, deputies have responded to the Eberhardts' house 14 times, Barta said, including five times for domestic reasons.

"We have responded to that residence numerous times," he said.

A neighbor said she has noticed several sheriff's vehicles at the residence in the past month, but she also said the area is usually fairly quiet.

At the news conference, Barta also said law enforcement officers were searching for a weapon used in the crime Monday at an undiclosed location. He didn't go into further detail.

The house remained a crime scene Monday and wasn't scheduled to be released until Monday night, Barta said.

On Monday afternoon, a deputy patrolled the perimeter of the home on foot and a crime scene investigation van was sitting in front. Yellow crime scene tape was stretched around the residence.

"Our investigation from top to bottom is very thorough," Barta said.

Michelle Eberhardt made a 911 call Sunday shortly before 3 a.m., the sheriff said, but he wouldn't elaborate. He did say deputies knew something was wrong at the scene when they discovered "it was not a suicide."

Gerald Eberhardt was pronounced dead at the scene.

A search warrant was obtained for the house, which sits north of a Shawnee Heights Fire District station, and an investigation began.

"Numerous interviews have been conducted," Barta said. "These people have been interviewed extensively. The individuals, at this time, have been cooperative."

Dakota Loomis, a spokesman for the Shawnee County District Attorney's office, told a judge Monday that Mosher confessed to shooting Eberhardt. Mosher was being held on $750,000 bond.

Michelle Eberhardt and Haase were being held on $300,000 bond, while Menard was held on $200,000 bond.

Barta said Haase and Mosher were acquaintances and were known gang members. The defendants didn't have legal representation when they appeared before a judge via a live secure video feed from the jail.

Loomis said Mosher and Haase were members of a Topeka gang affiliated with the Folks Nation, a larger collection of gangs that operate throughout the Midwest. However, Barta said investigators see no reason that the shooting was "gang-related."

Mosher has a history of violence, including a conviction in September for domestic battery, court records show. In that case, Eberhardt paid $114 in court and probation fees for her son.

Haase was sentenced in June to 90 days in jail for a domestic battery charge and was given credit for time served. He remained on probation.

A six-month period in 2005 highlights a tumultuous relationship between Gerald Eberhardt and his wife, court records show.

A peek at court records shows a history of violence for Gerald Eberhardt -- at least 15 criminal cases filed against him in the last 17 years. Many of them were for battery against a law enforcement officer. Many others were for domestic battery.

In July 2005, he was arrested for domestic violence and witness intimidation of Michelle Eberhardt. One month later, in August 2005, she filed for divorce. In September, he was formally charged with the crimes.

But by December of that year, Michelle Eberhardt had changed her mind about divorce, and she withdrew her petition. One month later, in January 2006, Gerald Eberhardt was convicted of the domestic battery charge.

They weren't the first domestic battery convictions for the man. In 1998, he pleaded no contest to the charge, and in 1999, he was found guilty by a jury of domestic battery and criminal restraint.

That all led to the 2006 conviction, which netted him one year in county jail.

A white piece of paper was taped in the window of Wizz By Auto Sales, 1316 N.W. Topeka Blvd., on Monday notifying customers that the business was closed because of a death in the family.

Capital-Journal staff writer James Carlson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Domestic violence before shooting | CJOnline.com

Will Darcy Freeman Get Justice

 

By Special Guest Writer Akasha Mc Donald

The dead cannot speak.  They cannot cry when there is no justice. 

"Take me away" Arthur Freeman said. 

The defense lawyer continued to shift the focus on the words that were not spoken, the food that was not offered and the CTV camera that did not record.  Well dressed with a shiny purple tie, sat Arthur Freeman carefully following the movements of the lawyers, calculating the sum of words, expressions and moments nearing the end of a two day committal hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court.  His lawyer did well to convince others that Arthur Freeman was not guilty, that he was mentally ill and not fit to stand trial.  There was more than just a few flaws that became the thread undoing the blanket of defense.  Without saying the word "catatonic", the lawyer gnarled away with questions establishing a lost cause even after it was confirmed that Mr Freeman had spoke.   It is an empirical fact in trauma studies that perpetrators suffer from trauma post the incident.  This has been well documented over many years.  The behaviors Mr Freeman displayed after the act, sounds just like text-book trauma. 

Towards the end of the hearing, the judge spoke directly to Mr Freeman informing him of the consequences of pleading guilty and not guilty throughout the trial.  As if gratified by knowing that his victims would be tormented by the case dragging out and the possibility of it twisting into a great injustice, he stood proudly and said, "Not Guilty".  Silence filled the room, followed by an echo of pens in unison furiously scratching away at paper.  His face was devoid of all emotion but a twisted sense of triumph that spread across his face. After all, it is the last opportunity he has to torment his ex wife and family. 

Why Are They Dead?

The Family Courts around the world are sentencing our children to death, by enforcing visitations and custody with abusive parents.  This site not only provides research about this ever growing problem but is also a tribute to those that have bee killed at the hands of their abuser because of court orders.

Below is an excerpt from Family Court Murders 

The Untied Nations definition of Genocide set out in the Convention on Genocide is:

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In the news, it is common to see these murders blamed on the economy or the stress associated with divorce.

Unless you are a keen researcher, you are not privy to knowing what academics and even the UN knew for years

A silent but deadly genocide against women and children where authorities have had many opportunities to eliminate the root cause, but chose not to.

In every case these deaths are a result of child custody disputes where the court knows of a violent history, but decides to gamble with their lives for the sake of "fathers rights".

Shared Parenting with an abuser is like playing Russian Roulette

I came across this and it really hit me...this IS what shared parenting is like.  With all of the murder-suicides that have happened this year and with so many abusive fathers killing their kids...this is it...

If you aren't convinced please start following these blogs:

Dastardly Dads     The Shared Parenting Disaster  

Intimate and Domestic Violence Homicides in the News

I have always been told that a picture is worth a 1000 words.  In this case I do hope this makes someone (hell even several someone’s) open their eyes and SEE why child around the world are dying daily!

"Dad" takes 2-month-old girl from women's shelter (with their permission) and kills her

This brought to us by Dastardly Dads...their comment says enough, I feel no need to add to it!

"Dad" takes 2-month-old girl from women's shelter (with their permission) and kills her (Singapore, Singapore)

This story is freaking unbelievable.

SARLE STEEPAN KOKUNDU, who falsely declared he was the biological father of his girlfriend's two-month-old daughter when the birth was registered, attacks the girlfriend at work while drunk for "not telling him that she was working" and other random accusations (typical abuser/control freak stuff). He pushes the girlfriend and punches her in the head. The police are called. They apparently don't arrest this goon, they just tell him to leave (mistake #1). Mom was staying at a women's shelter called the Good Shepherd Centre at the time--apparently a shelter run by complete idiots and incompetents (mistake #2). Dad then goes to the shelter, lies, and says that the mother gave him "permission" to take the child out. AND THESE MORONS HAND OVER THE KID! NO PROOF, NO NOTHING! (mistake #3). Virtually as soon as he gets the baby out of there, the "seething" dad slaps her and "roughs her up" till she is bleeding from the mouth. A passerby notices that the baby is blue and motionless, and alerts the staff at the shelter, who call for an ambulance. Apparently these nitwits didn't notice that the man who had just picked up a baby from their shelter was literally beating the sh-- out of this kid just outside their door. (mistake #4). And this POS actually rides in the ambulance to the hospital with the baby! (mistake #5). Later that night, the baby dies from a fractured skull, and the "dad" is arrested for murder.
What good are DV shelters when they pull this crap?

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_427758.html

Sep 10, 2009
Man admits killing baby
He repeatedly slapped two-month-old girl, who died from skull fractures

By Selina Lum

AFTER attacking his girlfriend at her workplace, a man went to the women's shelter where she was staying and asked for her two-month-old baby girl. Sarle Steepan Kolundu, 44, was registered as the infant's biological father - even though he was not - and he was allowed to take her out.

He was still seething when he took the baby, and he slapped and roughed her up until she was bleeding profusely from the mouth. They were just metres from the shelter, the Good Shepherd Centre.

A passer-by, seeing that the baby had turned blue and was motionless, alerted staff at the shelter, who called for an ambulance.

The infant, Esther Regina Sarle Steepan, died in hospital from skull fractures. Sarle Steepan, who went in the ambulance with her, was arrested at the hospital that night. He was initially charged with murder, which carries the death penalty, for killing the baby on June 1 last year.
But on Wednesday, on what would have been the start of a 13-day trial in the High Court, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He faces life in prison or up to 20 years' jail and can also be caned or fined. Next Monday, the prosecution will argue its case for sentencing and the defence will plead for leniency.

The court heard that Sarle Steepan and Ms Siti Noor Fazlina Haron, 24, entered into a relationship soon after they met in August 2007. For a while, they lived together in a rented flat, but moved out shortly in February last year. Ms Siti was then pregnant with another man's child.
Esther Regina was born on March 27 last year. Sarle Steepan knew he was not the biological father, but falsely declared that he was while registering her birth in May. Later that month, he began suspecting that Ms Siti was cheating on him.

On the evening of June 1 last year, reeking of alcohol, he showed up at the shopping mall where she worked and created a scene. He berated her for not telling him that she was working, pushed her and repeatedly punched her on the head.

The police were called in and they advised him to leave. He then cycled to the shelter and lied that Ms Siti had given him permission to take the baby out.

After the baby was handed to him, he pushed her in a pram to the void deck of the block. After his arrest, Sarle Steepan admitted that he had repeatedly slapped the baby in anger. An autopsy report said the skull fractures showed that the blows to the baby's head were of 'considerable force' and were highly unlikely to have been caused accidentally.

Dastardly Dads: "Dad" takes 2-month-old girl from women's shelter (with their permission) and kills her (Singapore, Singapore)

Movement helping release battered women from prison

original:   Financial adviser from Chesterfield helped spark domestic violence movement - STLtoday.com

Joe Church has been an advocate for releasing battered women from prison in Missouri. (Robert Cohen/P-D)

BY STEPHEN DEERE

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

08/30/2009

When Joe Church attended his 20-year high school reunion in 1997, he noticed that an old friend was missing. What happened to Michelle Povis?
That question proved to be a catalyst for the fight to release 11 women who claimed to be victims of abuse.
Church learned that Michelle Povis, who had become Michelle Hendrickson, had been convicted of murdering her husband.
Church couldn't understand how the girl he knew at Mercy High School, a private Catholic school in University City, could kill. He called the prison, Tipton Correctional Center, and arranged a visit.

"I didn't call with the assumption she was guilty or innocent," said Church, 50, a financial adviser from Chesterfield. "She was a friend, a classmate, who was in prison. … What could cause that to happen?"
In 1994, Hendrickson shot her husband, Rodney, while he slept in their home in St. Charles County. They had four children, ages 5 to 11.

Hendrickson told police that her husband tied her up, beat her and raped her that night. She also said she had suffered years of abuse, with her husband throwing her off a roof once because she dropped a hammer.
Hendrickson pleaded guilty in 1997 to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years. At her sentencing, Rodney Hendrickson's relatives said that it was wrong for Hendrickson to shoot her children's father and that her punishment should be harsher.

Church told his mother Hendrickson's story shortly after the prison visit. "My mom said, 'You're going to do something, aren't you?'" he recalled.
Church started calling domestic violence advocates. Soon, the state's four law schools became interested. They would go on to identify 10 other cases to take on.

Still, Hendrickson failed in early attempts for clemency or parole. Finally, in October 2008, the parole board freed her, but only after she had served 14 years.

Hendrickson, now 49, moved in with her parents in St. Charles, and Church helped get her a job with a maintenance company. Hendrickson has become friends with Church, his wife and their four children.
While the efforts of lawyers have helped free other women, Hendrickson had to serve nearly her entire sentence. Still, her case helped touch off the movement.

Church's role in that movement now is mostly to provide "moral support." "I'm just very fortunate I was put in a position to help somebody," he said.