“If there are lessons to be learnt or failures to be identified, they will be. If changes need to be made to better protect children, they will be made,” Washington said.
Kate Washington, the NSW minister for communities and family, announced the independent review. Photo / Kate Washington
Police found the boy’s body after the woman arrived at Wyong Police Station on Saturday afternoon, allegedly telling police she had eaten part of her son, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
When police conducted a welfare check at a Byron St property, they found the boy’s body with significant arm injuries.
Police obtained approval over the weekend to carry out forensic testing on the woman, enabling officers to collect a buccal swab, blood sample, nail clippings and material from beneath her fingernails, as well as “to examine the internal mouth contents and forensic material of the suspect”, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“I’m prepared to say publicly at the moment, it was an extremely confronting scene,” Superintendent Chad Gilles from Tuggerah Lakes Police said in a press conference on Sunday morning.
“My priority at the moment now is to work through the investigation with detectives to understand exactly what happened and why it happened, and importantly, as well, providing welfare to all the police that attended last night and through the investigation.
“Whenever a child is a victim of violent crime and whenever a child is murdered, it strikes at the core of community. That’s why it’s absolutely important we work through this methodically, we try to understand what’s happened, why it happened.”
Police at the crime scene on Sunday. Photo / Nine News
The Sydney Morning Herald reported multiple accounts from neighbours on the mother and son.
“[The boy] was all happy; seen him walking the dog and walking up and down the street. He was very energetic,” a man, who had previously done work on the woman’s car, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“[The boy] goes ‘oh you’re working on Mum’s car, has she broken it again’? He was happy. We couldn’t see any signs of anything.”
The mother and son had reportedly moved into the rental property earlier this year, allegedly following domestic violence between the woman and an ex-partner, according to neighbours.
“It’s a shocking situation,” another neighbour reportedly said.
The woman, previously known to police, was arrested at the police station and charged on Sunday with murder (domestic violence).
Her case was heard briefly at the Bail Division Court on Sunday. She did not apply for bail and it was refused (as required by legal process), and she is due to appear in court in September.