❤️HIS NAME IS OTIS CLUNE!❤️
‘I like going down to the beach and eating fish and chips with tomato sauce.’
How can you read these words and think to yourself, his parents were justified in murdering him and his brother?
Otis Clune was a little boy with dreams, ambitions, likes and dislikes. He deserved to explore all the things the world has to offer.
The 14-year-old did not deserve to die. And neither did Leon.
Otis was murdered alongside Leon at his home in Mosman Park on January 30. Police believe their parents killed both boys and then ended their own lives. They also killed the boys’ three pets.
Otis is the third Australian child killed in 2026 – 16-year-old Leon is the second child killed this year. Last year, we lost 26 children to violence.
In briefing media, police went to great pains to soften the language around this act of domestic violence. Using words like ‘health struggles’ and ‘non-violent’ murder, the phrasing leans into the ‘mercy killing’ trope. That is, a person or people had no choice but to kill someone with disability and/or chronic illness (or other factor) because the killer/s could not cope or because they believed the victim/s could not cope without them.
There’s no doubt raising children – with or without diverse needs – is a struggle. And I know that Australia’s support systems can be hard to access and often deeply inadequate.
Murdering someone is not acceptable or justifiable. It just is not. There are no shades of grey here.
Hopefully, a coronial inquest will examine all the aspects leading up to the murders of Leon and Otis – and with that examination will come recommendations for change. These recommendations – no matter how costly or painful – must be implemented by policy-holders and governments.
Their deaths can – at the very least – inspire change!
OTIS CLUNE MATTERS!❤️
*Please see the separate entry for Leon.
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