Mom testifies at dad's murder trial; dad with "shared custody" accused of throwing 4-year-old daughter off bridge (Melbourne, Australia)

We've reported on dad ARTHUR FREEMAN several times since this story broke in January 2009. Freeman--a father who had "shared" custody of his three kids despite a history of mental instability--is now on trial for the murder of his 4-year-old daughter, who was thrown off a bridge.

It is largely because of the Freeman case--and many other cases like it--that Australians are reconsidering the whole lockstep "shared parenting" mantra. Unfortunately, despite the fact that mandatory shared parenting has been tried--and has failed--as a social experiment, few policy makers in the U.S. seems to be aware of any of this.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mother-testifies-in-darcey-murder-case-20110316-1bxbx.html

Mother testifies in Darcey murder case
Andrea Petrie
March 17, 2011

DARCEY Freeman's first day of school on January 29, 2009, was a milestone her mother did not want to miss.

Peta Barnes had phoned her ex-husband, Arthur Freeman, the night before to speak to four-year-old Darcey and her two brothers, Ben, 6, and Jack, 2, but their father said he was not with them so could not put them on the phone.

Freeman said he would get them to call her the following morning, but they never phoned.

So Ms Barnes and her mother - the children's grandmother - decided to meet them at the school to watch Darcey walk through the gates at Hawthorn's St Joseph's Primary School to begin prep at the same school Ben attended.

They arrived at around 8.30am and watched all the other children enter the grounds as they waited for Freeman and the children to show up.

When he failed to arrive in time for classes to begin, Ms Barnes phoned to see where they were.

''His response was, 'Say goodbye to your children','' she told Victoria's Supreme Court yesterday.

Speaking from the witness box at Freeman's murder trial, Ms Barnes said she could not recall what her response was, but ''He replied, 'Just say goodbye' and hung up the phone.''

Agitated, she phoned him straight back, several times.

''I managed to get through one more time and I said to him, 'It's me.' I think he said, 'Who is it?' And I said, 'It's me', and he said, 'You'll never see your children again'.''

Ms Barnes contacted police to report her children missing, explaining that their ''lives had been threatened''. She phoned the solicitor who had helped her reach a financial settlement and finalise custody arrangements with Freeman over the previous two days at the Federal Magistrates Court. She also spoke to the school principal before heading home to get some photos of the children, which she and her mother then took to the local police station.

''My solicitor contacted me to let me know that there was a news report that a child, a female child, had been thrown from the [West Gate] Bridge,'' Ms Barnes said.

She returned to the police station and was then taken to the Royal Children's Hospital, where her daughter had been taken during desperate attempts to resuscitate her after she was pulled from the water 58 metres below the bridge, having been thrown over the railing by her father.

Ms Barnes remained composed during her 40-minute testimony, peering briefly at Freeman a couple of times.

Freeman has pleaded not guilty to his daughter's murder. He claims he was mentally impaired at the time.

Ms Barnes agreed that Freeman began displaying mood swings when they returned to Melbourne in 2006 after several years in the United Kingdom. They separated in March 2007 and she said she thought he might have been suffering from some sort of depression. They divorced in 2008 and had shared custody of the children until she sought to alter the custody arrangement in late 2008.

She said she had seen Freeman in the Federal Magistrates Court the two days leading up to Darcey's death as they finalised things, adding that ''Arthur appeared happy when I left the court with the outcomes''.

The defence case will begin, before Justice Paul Coghlan, today