NEED TO KNOW
- Australian schoolgirl Biddy Porter was murdered in 2020.
- She was just 10 when she died, and her killer was a teenager known to her.
- Police described the crime as “the worst committed in Australia by a child.”
- Biddy’s family has campaigned for justice on her behalf ever since
- They fear there were missed opportunities to prevent the crime.
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains detailed discussions of the murder of a child, youth mental illness, psychosis, and severe trauma. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
Police told Dominic Porter that the murder of his 10-year-old daughter Bridgette, known as Biddy, was the worst crime committed in Australia by a child.
Six years on, Biddy Porter’s dad, Dominic, is shocked that most Australians don’t even know his daughter’s name, let alone the hellish circumstances he and his family have been caught up in since her death in rural NSW in July 2020.
“It’s soul-destroying,” he tells New Idea, explaining that no matter how hard the fight is, he’ll keep on until his dying breath.
“We don’t want what happened to happen again. It’s what Bridgette would want, and it’s what we, as parents, want.”
Dominic was at work on July 8 when he was told police wanted to see him.
“That wasn’t unusual,” he says, because as a bank manager, police often came into his office.
But this was not a routine call.
When they told him his daughter had been killed, he remembers dropping to the ground.
“I hit the wall; I didn’t know what to do. She was my world,” he says.
Initially, there weren’t many details, but in the following days, Dominic and Biddy’s mother, Rebekah Keukenmeester, were told Biddy had been killed by a teenager known to her.
The perpetrator, referred to as “XR”, and the circumstances of the murder still cannot be detailed in the press due to the killer’s age at the time and her medical situation.
Shortly after Biddy’s murder, the 14-year-old involved handed herself in to the police, and in the midst of their grief, Dom says he assumed she’d be charged with murder and go to jail.
But that’s not what happened.
Because she was suffering a mental health impairment, the trial in November 2021 found that while XR killed Biddy, she wasn’t “criminally responsible.”
Instead of going to jail, she was detained at a forensic health facility in NSW, from which Dominic says he gets regular updates about how well she is doing.
“We hear how amazing she’s doing, how she’s learning music,” he says.
“Bridgette doesn’t get to do that.”
It made no sense to Dominic, and he and Rebekah, who are divorced, were determined that someone must be responsible.
It’s led to their years-long fight for answers, and the coronial inquest, which they hoped would provide them, finally happened in June.
“The big thing [we learned] was there were systematic failures which could have prevented what happened,” Dominic says.
“I didn’t know the extent – from the parents to the Department of Education to the GP – of missed opportunities.”
The inquest heard Biddy Porter’s killer was experiencing psychosis that was “extremely rare” for their age.
As she descended into it, she killed animals, had visions, and heard voices.
She told her mother two weeks before the murder that she thought about killing people “all the time,” but her mother admitted: “I never believed in mental health; I didn’t understand mental health, so it didn’t come up to me as something I needed to do.”
Dominic, flanked by supporters wearing ‘Justice for Biddy’ T-shirts, was able to express his grief.
“Biddy, I love you. I miss you every day. I am sorry for every moment you were robbed of,” he said.
“I will keep trying to make sure your name means more than just loss. I love you to the moon and back.”
The coroner will report her findings at a later date, and Dominic hopes the inquest raises awareness about the signs of serious mental health issues to spare another family.
For him, though, the process hasn’t been worth the mental toll.
“There was no accountability from anyone,” he says, vowing to keep Biddy’s name alive.
“Our Justice4BiddyPorter Facebook group has 27,000 followers, and that keeps me going,” he says.
“There needs to be more support for the victims’ families. I used to be a high-performing bank manager, but I can’t work after what’s happened. The system needs to change, and I’ll keep fighting for that.”
