Imagine for a moment, a woman walks down the street late at night wearing a short skirt. She is murdered. People say she was asking for it because she was walking down the street late at night in a short skirt. We can all see this for what it is – victim-blaming.
Now imagine this. Two teenage lads are killed by their parents at their home because they have autism. The narrative around their deaths includes: ‘I understand why the parents did it’. ‘They must have been really struggling’. ‘Walk a mile in their shoes’. ‘It’s hard caring for people with disability’. So few see this for what it is – victim-blaming.
Leon and Otis Clune were murdered by their mother and father in Mosman Park, Western Australia on January 30, 2026.
The parents also killed the children’s beloved three pets before ending their own lives.
In addressing the media on the afternoon of their death, police went to great lengths to present a sympathy-ridden overview of a premeditated plan to deprive a 14 and 16-year-old of their lives.
Their deaths were framed as ‘non-violent’ amid the children having ‘challenges’ and ‘health issues’ and the parents were ‘under pressure’. It, was, police told media, a ‘tragedy’ for all those who died.
And so the ‘loving and merciful’ and ‘ultimate act of love’ narrative flourishes – a perspective that condone murder in which the children become an exclamation points in the story of their killers.
When I write about Otis and Leon, people urge me to frame my words carefully, to not miss the nuance of the killers’ ‘struggles’.
I’m told to give the killers ’empathy’ for their ‘burdens’, to understand how hard it is to raise children with disability, to walk a mile in their shoes, to realise they had no other option and to shut up about their culpability.
I know there were systemic failures, including the parents struggling to keep their children’s NDIS funding, having to navigate service gaps and facing holes in the safety nets.
When the coroner investigates the murders of Leon and Otis and the suicides of their parents, all of these issues will be examined. The coroner will deliver recommendations for change – let’s hope there is the political will to respond appropriately.
But there’s no escaping the one truth that underpins the very short lives of Otis and Leon.
Their parents had a duty of care: To love them, nurture them, clothe, feed, educate and house them and keep them safe from danger and death.
They chose an unconscionable path – murder is not an ‘act of love and mercy’.
The entire concept of mercy killing is beyond the pale – the idea that someone has the power to erase a life simply because the victim is incompatible due to health, disability, age or some other often uncontrollable transgression is abhorrent.
I’ve documented many femicides where the husband has murdered his elderly wife with dementia and always the ‘mercy’ killing narrative flows.
If we are comfortable with murdering children because they have disability – where do we stop?
Are we then cool with killing people with Alzheimer’s or dementia, killing people with cancer, killing women over a certain age because they can no longer produce babies, killing people who are trans or gay, killing people because their religion or ethics differ to the norm?
And who blesses us with this moral authority to euthanise those incompatible with one’s way of existing? The government? The police? Church leaders? Our neighbours? Our parents? Our partners?
I understand humans struggle and I know too well how badly systems fail vulnerable Australians – I see these failures in every femicide and child murder I document. I see the moments where they could have been saved and the moments when all hope was lost.
But I also see that we humans are capable of making choices. And for the parents of Leon and Otis the right choice may have been heartbreaking, but they could have made it.
Instead of killing these two lads, the adults could have taken them to police or given them to a trusted carer or family member. Yes. As traumatising as it would be – they could have – and should have – walked away.
Instead, they CHOSE to murder the boys in an act of entitled and selfish domestic violence.
Otis and Leon are the victims. The ‘ultimate act of love’ would have been for their parents to let them live.
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