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Rachelle Pfitzner given 19 years for murdering toddler Dean Shillingsworth

A

AussieMum

Well-Known Member
He tried clinging to her.

"I told him to go out and play . . . he wouldn't listen . . . then I lost it . . . I grabbed him by the shirt and jumper which had a hood and shook him . . . the next thing I remember was that he was frothing at the mouth . . . I was in a state of shock," Pfitzner told one psychiatrist. When she realised what she had done, she became shocked, scared and petrified, she said.

She stripped his clothes from his body, because he had wet himself as she choked him, wrapped him in plastic and put him in a suitcase.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/evil-mother-despised-her-son-dean/story-e6freuy9-1225808813044


Pfitzner, 28, pleaded guilty to his murder. She nodded as she was sentenced in the Supreme Court yesterday to at least 19 years and two months in jail.

Earlier she had wiped away tears as Justice Robert Hulme recounted her different versions of the killing. Pfitzner told police she shook Dean and threw him to the ground. But in a secretly recorded conversation, she told her mother she choked him, swinging him around by his hooded jumper when ''the rage came up''.

Pfitzner's troubled relationship with Dean's father, Paul Shillingsworth, played a part. He had allegedly threatened her and she told police that when she looked at Dean, ''all I could see was Paul''.

"I just kept seeing his father and couldn't stop myself,'' she said

http://www.smh.com.au/national/mother-gets-25-years-jail-for-murder-20091209-kk39.html

This really touched a lot of hearts here in Australia. I think it was made even worse that poor little Dean was tossed into a lake and found by children.
 
MY GOD! That poor poor baby. He was clinging to his mother, alls he wanted was "mommy" and all she had was rage for him because he reminded her of his father?? ABSOLUTELY SHAMEFUL, I don;t know how else to say it? Unfortunately alot of times parents take out on their kids the other parents mistakes. When I was growing up my mother had such a hatred/anger for my father, I was NOT permitted to say "daddy" in any way in front of her or I would be immediatly slapped. The anger /hatred eventually subsided over the years (THANK GOD) but it's horrible when a parent punishes an innocent child because of the hatred/anger for the other parent - it's NOT FAIR. And this poor boy paid the ultimate price - his life. I hope her prison time is HARD and that she gets every bad thing that she deserves
 
RACHEL Pfitzner was ordered to address her anger management problem exactly a year before she murdered her toddler son.

A judge handed her a suspended jail term so she could get the help she needed - and look after her children.

Twelve months later her two-year-old son Dean Shillingsworth was dead, his tiny body shoved into a suitcase and tossed in a duck pond.

Pfitzner, 27, yesterday pleaded guilty to murder, the Crown rejecting her claim it was an accidental death.

She now admits she murdered him - and meant to end his sad, short life.

David Penberthy blog: Dean lost in an abyss of neglect

Pfitzner faced Acting Judge Joseph Moore in October 2006 over a violent attack on Dean's grandfather, and he had some sympathy for her.

She was the mother of two small children with an alcoholic partner, Paul James Shillingsworth, who was also prone to rages.

Judge Moore made it a condition of her release that she get help - "especially anger management".



Perhaps if she had listened, or indeed the system had worked, Dean would still be alive.

The Daily Telegraph can now reveal the history of his parents' lives that made his death almost inevitable.

Court files revealed Pfitzner was a junkie, molested as a young girl and bashed by her father. She was kicked out of home to live on the streets at 17.

Paul Shillingsworth was one of seven children, a violent alcoholic who left school aged nine.

Yet they seemed to have found a perfect match - love with the only person in the world they believed cared for them. But theirs was a volatile relationship.

Court documents said Shillingsworth was prone to violence when drunk. Often drinking up to four litres of port a day, he would turn. She, too, found it tough to control her anger.

In the cycle of violence that was their life together, their only son, Dean, never stood a chance.

Pfitzner, 28, was born in Blacktown. She had five siblings but, according to a psychologist's report tendered to Acting Judge Moore, she was the one singled out for violence by her father.

Shillingsworth grew up in Brewarrina, where his dad died when he was aged 12 or 13. He played football and got into boxing before drugs and alcohol took over. A talented dancer, he worked in Aboriginal dancing at Darling Harbour. But for Shillingsworth, jail was a revolving door.

A schizophrenic who heard voices, his offences were usually committed while he was under the influence.

Much of his adult life was spent in jail for crimes including stalking, intimidation, destroying property, hindering police and robbery. The two lost souls met in 2003 when Pfitzner was babysitting for Shillingsworth's mother, Ann Coffey, in Tamworth.

Shillingsworth called from jail and Pfitzner answered the phone.

Each of them already had two children to different partners. Dean was born on February 25, 2005. He moved in with his grandmother, Ms Coffey, but his mum got visiting rights on her release.

Ms Coffey last saw Dean when she dropped him off at his mum's at Rosemeadow on June 7, 2007.

Rachel Pfitzner's mother, who wishes to be known only as Bev, has always been her daughter's staunchest defender and was extremely critical of community services that failed to hear their calls for help.

But Pfitzner's plea left Bev emotionally shattered as she had to not only come to grips with her daughter's guilt, but how someone she raised was capable of such evil.

"It's terrible, it's bloody terrible," she told The Daily Telegraph.

"No family should have to go through this. This is terrible."

She spoke about the awful grief her daughter caused when she murdered Bev's "beautiful grandson with the "Shirley temple curls".

"How dare she? He was an innocent boy," Bev said.

His final moments will be revealed in the Supreme Court when his mother faces a sentencing hearing on October 8.
Click to expand...

Source: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25951760-953,00.html (There is a photograph of this angel here)

Dad wasn't much of a winner apparently: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...-to-be-released/2007/10/23/1192941046738.html

Sad picture of the little boy: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2004/1679219211_a011f48eb6.jpg

THE little boy's naked body was curled in the foetal position and enclosed in a plastic bag marked "Happy New Century Gift Shop" and inside a suitcase when he was fished out of a pond near Campbelltown. One heel and his tiny buttocks were visible through the open zip.

When a forensic pathologist examined Dean Shillingsworth's body that night, she allegedly found it covered in bruises, with lacerations to the scalp and anus which appeared to have been inflicted post-mortem.

But the pathologist, Dianne Little, told Campbelltown Local Court yesterday that it was possible Dean was still alive when he was stuffed into the plastic bag - thought the cause of death had not been determined.

The two-year-old's mother, Rachel Pfitzner, was yesterday committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court charged with his murder in October last year.

She blinked around the courtroom and occasionally wiped away tears, speaking only to confirm that she did not wish to enter a plea.

According to documents tendered to the court, Pfitzner told police she had picked up Dean by his jumper, which had a hood and cord around the neck, and shaken him from side to side, "not full force".

She shook him for "two minutes and then I think I stopped and then done it again and again, all in a matter of a few minutes to five minutes," she allegedly said.

"The second time I threw him on the ground."

After Dean hit the ground he allegedly became unresponsive, gurgled and frothed at the mouth, and Pfitzner allegedly told police she had tried to resuscitate him by tilting back his head, pinching his nose and breathing through his mouth.

But Dr Little said in a report tendered to the court that his injuries were consistent with suffocation, possibly by a hand being placed over his face.

"In my opinion, Dean's death doesn't fit into the description of shaken baby syndrome," the report said. Babies were more likely than toddlers to die from being shaken because their heads were relatively large, they had weak neck muscles and there was usually post-mortem evidence of haemorrhaging around their brains, which did not occur in Dean's case, the report said.

Pfitzner's barrister, Belinda Rigg, asked Dr Little whether it was possible that Dean might have appeared to have been deceased but in fact died after he was placed in the plastic bag.

Dr Little said it was possible. But she said it was unlikely that Pfitzner would have been able to hold and shake the boy with one hand for two minutes, as she claimed in her account to police, because he was probably even heavier than the 12 kilograms he weighed when he was pulled out of the water days later.

She also rejected the suggestion that the injuries to Dean's face might have been inflicted from Pfitzner's attempt to resuscitate him, rather than a hand having been placed over his mouth to suffocate him.

The husband of Dean's paternal grandmother, Edmund Caban, said outside the court that the family was barely coping with its loss. "We're getting there," he said. "We miss him a lot."
Click to expand...

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/boy-may-have-suffocated-in-bag/2008/10/28/1224956039697.html
 
That's disgusting and sad. She put her hand over her own child's mouth to suffocate him. I can't believe she only received 19 years. I wonder how Australian inmates treat child killers? The same as here in the States? I hope so! RIP sweet little angel.
 
I find it repulsive that everyone in the world has to listen to news reports on tiger woods and his affairs (like anyone really gives a damn anyone) yet we have to come here to the demon to read important news like

Child killer jailed!!!

I think that remembering an innocent child and taking the time to pray for him and honor him (even though i did not know him) is way more important than stupid shit like who a golfer was bangin.
 
The hypocrisy is amazing. "At least I didn't starve mine to death." Is that how she feels she has the right to judge the other? :stupido3:
 
As usual a child's life means so little. I hope someone tortures that monster and dumps her in a plastic bag. Oh yeah she has rights, the law will protect her and we should be concerned about her really bad childhood and dysfunctional life. Like we all arent a lil fucked up too, we dont abuse and murder our babies. No matter what life is like, there is no excuse here!

Hopefully those pathetic pigs will abuse each other. Sick.
 
Dean Died Because of "Competing Priorities"?

EVEN before Dean Shillingsworth was born, concerns about his safety were reported to the NSW Department of Community Services.

During his short life -- in the two years and seven months before his body was found stuffed inside a suitcase in a western Sydney pond -- he was reported to the department nine times.

NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour yesterday criticised the "continued failure" to address the 34 reports the department received between 2001 and 2007 about Dean and his two siblings, in his report on the boy's death.

...

The report came a day after Dean's mother, Rachel Pfitzner, 27, was jailed for more than 25 years for her son's murder in October 2007 and two months after Mr Barbour's report into the death of seven-year-old NSW girl "Ebony", whose neglect by her parents and the department was a catalyst for a special commission of inquiry into child protection services in NSW and subsequent reforms.

Mr Barbour paints a picture of a department that was understaffed and able to deal only with "urgent" cases.

...

The report noted 23 of the 34 calls to the department about Dean's family were related to his older sister. Caseworkers did not make any contact with the child or her mother over these reports.

Before Dean's birth in 2005, DOCS received concerns about "domestic violence and an unsafe home environment" but the report was not allocated to the local office and was closed because of "competing priorities".
Click to expand...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...fore-he-was-born/story-e6frg6n6-1225809219594
 
So, he wasn't deemed an "urgent" case and now he is dead! Wtf is wrong with this picture? I guess CPS failure is a world wide issue, not just here in the states. So sad. I wonder how many more innocent children will lose their lives because their abuse isn't considered urgent enough? RIP sweet Angel.
 
DeanShillingsworth-Aus-killedbymoma.jpg

Dean Shillingsworth

Precious Beautiful child, how I wish you had been given to a loving family and still here, for us to witness your potential wonders! So sorry you were failed.
*sigh*
 
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