2LT Local News

CENTRAL WEST, NSW, Australia – A small town in the Central West, which cannot be named because of legal reasons, continues to wear the shame of the treatment and ultimate death of a small, autistic boy 8 years ago.

The names of the family and the location of the Central West town have been ordered by the court not to be revealed. Other aspects of the case have been concealed, not to be released for four years after a trial that saw the parents of the boy at first charged with murder, but later having that charge downgraded to manslaughter. Only now has that partial order expired, and details can be revealed.

The drama began in the unnamed town in the Central West in 2010 when the boy, and his mother, James and Sarah Marsh (not their real names) and another child of Sarah’s, and her partner Martin Marsh (not his real name) and his one child, moved as a family to a small home which had a big yard and a garden shed at the back. The family had bought the two bedroom cottage for $115,000.

In October that year Martin complained to James’s school he was not receiving the attention he needed and said he would home-school him from thereon, according to a report by The Sunday Telegraph‘s Crime Reporter Ava Benny-Morrison in Sunday’s edition of the newspaper.

What was going on behind closed doors did not become apparent until much later. Suffice to say James had problems through his autism and an attention-deficit disorder, but his treatment by his parents, when it became public knowledge, shocked the town. James was kept for up to 12-hours at a time in the laundry, and later a garden shed (pictured) strapped to a portable toilet seat and naked from the waist down, according to The Sunday Telegraph report.

Sarah and Martin claimed his behaviour, from jumping off furniture and biting his fingernails, was impossible to manage.

Martin searched Google for advice on using a straitjacket but resorted to placing white PVC pipes on James’ arms.

“I thought it was a good idea because …. he can’t hurt himself, he can’t do anything stupid,” Martin later told police.

Sometimes James’s parents admitted they would put a green Woolworths bag over his head, claiming that if he couldn’t see, he was more likely to go to sleep.

In the mornings, James would have abrasions on his bottom from struggling against his restraints.

“We are trying to prevent him from hurting himself. I don’t like having to put tape around him … what do you do?” Sarah later explained during her police interview.

It was around this time in August/September 2011, that a real estate agent inspected the house and saw James locked in a room with no furniture and a mat on the floor,’ The Sunday Telegraph reported.

“There was faeces and urine on the floor.”

“(The mother) had said she just locked James in there while she cleaned the house. But it was filthy,” the agent told police. “It just wasn’t right.”

“He went home and discussed with his partner whether to call Family and Community Services or not.”

There were other glimpses that James wasn’t being treated right.

The Sunday Telegraph explains:

A neighbour saw Martin drag James by his ear behind the family home.

A tradesman saw James kept in a roped-off section of the backyard for hours on end, which the family referred to as James’ happy place.

Even after his death, Martin referred to James as “the idiot” in conversations.

“It’s shocking because the fact is that many people felt responsible that this happened in their own backyard,” a local woman said.

The woman was adamant that people connected to the school called Family and Community Services, concerned about the boy’s treatment.

But it is understood FACS had no record of “child at risk” reports.

James’ parents suggested they’d cried out for help.

“It’s not like we haven’t talked to people about it, it’s not like we haven’t asked for help,” Sarah told police in October 2011

But police found James’ doctors were never told about their extreme methods, and the couple were not ignorant of the government aid available and how to navigate support services.

The officer-in-charge, Detective Sergeant Michael Burton, said the parents accessed disability support in 2008.

“To me, they had the capacity to access services,” he said.

“They were aware of what was available and they had James in respite, they had received funding in the past and they didn’t use that knowledge.”

The last time James saw his paediatrician was on September 9, 2011. That night, his parents started locking him in the garden shed, the Telegraph report said.

On September 30, 2011, James had defecated in the cottage. Martin was so enraged he rubbed the child’s face in it. James was going to be restrained in the shed that night.

In the dirty garden shed, Martin fastened a ratchet strap around James’ waist and secured packing tape across his chest and forehead.

James’ feet were tapped to another chair, not far from a heater that was unplugged despite 5C temperatures.

While James’ autism meant he had trouble communicating, it was obvious the shed was uncomfortable.

“I opened up the door, he goes, ‘I want up’, I said ‘no you gotta stay in the chair’,” Martin told police.

“‘I said ‘mate … don’t be stubborn, you do this all the time.'”

James began making noises in the shed.

At 10pm, Martin went to the shed and warned “(James), stop it, I’ll wet you”. James replied “no, no wet”.

“And then all of a sudden he stuck his tongue out,” Martin later told detectives.

“I said what are you pulling a face for? I thought he is just being silly buggers.”

Just after 2:00am, Martin, snug in the cottage’s main bedroom, was fed up with hearing James’ continued noises from the shed. He took the boy into the cottage, showered him under cold water and carried him back to the shed.

James weighed just 24kg. It was difficult for him to retain heat.

At 2.37am paramedics received a call from James mum Sarah.

James had become hypothermia from sitting in the near-freezing cold shed for eight hours.

Paramedics Howard O’Regan and Craig Parsons found James “as cold as ice”.

“I went into the bathroom and the little fella was on the ground in the bathroom,” Mr Parsons said.

“The mother was kneeling next to him.”

According to court documents, Martin told Mr Parsons: “he was in the bathroom, he had a fit and fell to the floor and stopped breathing.”

After more than 45 minutes of CPR, James died at hospital.

INTERVIEW

At the hospital, Martin spent hours methodically explaining why he restrained James.

There was no malice in his voice as he claimed he “done the best I can”.

But detectives asked, was James really naughty or was it a consequence of his disability?

“I don’t know about that, all I know if that if he chooses not to do something he won’t do it,” Martin replied.

“(I don’t know if) that’s autism or not or if that’s a personality trait.”

One detective asked whether in hindsight, was strapping James to a chair for 12 hours a reasonable way of stopping him from jumping around.

“It wasn’t just for my sake, it wasn’t just for (Sarah’s) sake it was for (James’) sake, for him to get some rest,” Martin said.

Homicide and Central West detectives spent eight months confirming Martin’s frank admissions, even if they wished they weren’t true.

“It was an inhumane way to treat a person let alone a child, particularly when there were two other children (James’ siblings) in the house sleeping in warm beds,” Det Sgt Burton said.

ARREST

In May 2012, detectives charged Martin and Sarah with James’ murder.

Investigators found someone (they couldn’t prove who) had searched the weather conditions and how to treat hypothermia on a computer in the house.

In a 2015 Judge Alone verdict that can only be revealed now, following the expiry of a court order, Sarah was found not guilty on the downgraded charge of manslaughter.

She argued that she didn’t know James was in the shed in wet clothing and couldn’t be held responsible for Martin’s actions.

In December last year, Martin, now 50, was sentenced to a maximum eight years jail, after pleading guilty to manslaughter and then trying to withdraw his admission.

With time already served, Martin will be eligible for parole in July 2021.

The crime haunts not only James’ extended family but the locals riddled with guilt, and investigators who described it as the saddest case they’ve ever dealt with.

“I did speak to one witness who was staying next door to (James) in a holiday rental,” Det Sgt Burton said.

“She said every time she gets cold now she just thinks about the boy in the shed.”

(Photo credit: NSW Police).