{"id":595059,"date":"2026-04-09T06:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595059\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:23:13","slug":"west-gate-bridge-child-killer-arthur-freeman-hospitalised-after-alleged-maximum-prison-bashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595059\/","title":{"rendered":"West Gate Bridge child killer Arthur Freeman hospitalised after alleged maximum prison bashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depraved West Gate Bridge child killer Arthur Freeman, the man who threw his four-year-old child off the top of Melbourne\u2019s tallest bridge to her death, has been brutally bashed inside a maximum security prison.<\/p>\n

Freeman, who is now 54, was attacked by another inmate at the Western Plains Correctional Centre, just west of Geelong.<\/p>\n

The child killer became an infamous criminal in Australia in 2009 after he threw his four-year-old daughter, Darcey, to her death.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Nightly’s newsletters.<\/p>\n

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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.\"ArthurArthur Freeman and Darcey. Credit: Unknown\/Supplied<\/p>\n

The crime, which took place on what would have been Darcey\u2019s first day of school, shocked the nation. Devastating details about the innocent young child\u2019s death were made public as Freeman was put on trial.<\/p>\n

Freeman, according to witnesses, took his daughter out of the car and threw her over the safety railing of the West Gate Bridge as if he was \u201cgoing to the post office\u201d.<\/p>\n

Freeman had recently had his visitation rights reduced, and in the moments of the horrific murder, told his ex-wife over the phone that she would never see her daughter again.<\/p>\n

In the car with Freeman and Darcey were her two brothers.<\/p>\n

At Freeman\u2019s criminal trial, evidence was heard stating that one of her brothers pleaded for his dad to go back and get his sister because she couldn\u2019t swim.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice under the West Gate Bridge after Darcey Freeman\u2019s murder. Credit: Craig Abraham\/Fairfax<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Freeman was the alleged victim of a brutal attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrections Victoria staff responded quickly to an incident between two prisoners at Western Plains Correctional Centre shortly before midday today (Wednesday),\u201d a Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman told the Herald Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne prisoner was taken to hospital for further assessment. No other prisoners or staff were injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman, likely due to the hideous nature of his depraved crime, is understood to live in relative isolation at the maximum security prison.<\/p>\n

He was reportedly involved in an incident back in 2011, shortly after his conviction, where he bit an officer who attempted to break up a scuffle.<\/p>\n

Freeman was found guilty and sentenced to life, with a 32 minimum year sentence by Justice Phillip Coghlan, who implied he may have preferred total non-parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou used your daughter to hurt your former wife as profoundly as possible. You chose a place remarkably public and would have the most dramatic impact,\u201d Justice Coghlan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that many will say that your crime is so serious in so many respects that I should not impose a non-parole period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is, you deserve to be locked away for ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the attractiveness of that argument, but the sentencing process is not as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Depraved West Gate Bridge child killer Arthur Freeman, the man who threw his four-year-old child off the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-595059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}