During a harrowing incident involving a house fire, a father remained unsettlingly quiet and passive as his young son cried out in agony, a coroner’s investigation revealed.
Two police officers, who were the first to arrive around 8 p.m., attempted to communicate with the father and shared their accounts during the inquest.
Sergeant Peter Rumford described discovering the father in the main house’s bathroom after noticing blood on the patio and hearing the distressing cries of children.
“He didn’t offer me any information,” Rumford recounted.
“It struck me as odd or strange that, despite his two boys crying and screaming, he was just standing in the shower holding a cigarette.”
The blaze, which occurred in a building approximately 150 meters from the main residence, also resulted in burns for the father and the younger son.
The two boys were seriously burned and were sitting on a sofa while wrapped in sheets or towels but their father had lesser injuries, Fairweather heard.
One or both of the boys were making a sound like he’d never heard before, Rumford said, adding they were “unrecognisable” due to their injuries.
Senior Constable Andrew Bell testified he recorded audio and video during his time at the fire scene using a non-police issue body camera.
The father said “I don’t remember anything. I just woke up and the house was on fire,” Bell said.
“He told me his (ex-partner) was probably responsible … if police had to point the finger at anyone.”
The father had a minimum level of interaction with his injured children, Bell said.
“I don’t recall anything a father would normally do, interacting with them or calming them or giving them any reassurances.
“He was essentially disconnected from them. There essentially wasn’t any connection I would expect or having concern for them.”
Bell said he could not recall the father asking him about the health of the boys in the minutes before an ambulance arrived.
One of the people who lived in the main house said they smelled smoke and heard a loud bang before looking outside to see the second dwelling on fire, Rumford said.
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