How the monster who murdered his children was given a ‘license to kill’ | 60 Minutes Australia

there are some stories that are almost too distressing to tell this is one of them it's about john edwards a controlling and violent man who when he didn't get his own way murdered his two teenage children before taking his own life as incomprehensible as that is this case is made even worse because the system designed to stop it happening the one that should have protected his victims failed spectacularly repeated warnings of edward's terrifying cruelty were ignored by police and the courts meaning this evil man was legally able to obtain the weapons he used to commit murder john edwards was given a license to kill this is all that's left of john edward's life a photograph and a military beret stored in his cousin's garage michael edwards has kept these scant mementos of a relative he now finds hard to recognize [Music] we just couldn't believe that what had happened what surprised you about it well john idolized his children and we couldn't imagine that he would have shot them police are responding to reports of a shooting at a home in west peninsula it's a crime that shocks to the core two children have been killed in a shooting in 2018 jack and jennifer and ultimately their mother olga were destroyed by the one man who should have protected and loved the most jack edwards gunned down by their own father and tragically they were let down by a system that failed to take seriously the threats of their 67 year old father may well be domestic violence related in your opinion was john edwards a walking talking red flag oh absolutely this is somebody who was frankly a walking time bomb and speaking out for the first time edward's former partner stacy knew what he was capable of her shock comes from learning he was effectively licensed to kill if the police have told me this man's applied for a gun license i would have told them don't give it to him i have no hesitation in knowing that he could kill someone the seeds of this tragedy were planted nearly 20 years ago when the then 50 year old edwards traveled to russia to meet and marry the 19 year old olga his russian bride was his sixth wife what olga didn't know was that she was marrying a man who was controlling and violent all his wives before her had suffered at his hands but with the marriage to olga and the birth of their children jack and jennifer edwards was starting over yet again jennifer and jack came down here to visit you they did we took them up the snow yeah and uh we had lots of fun actually on the shores of lake jindabyne michael edwards remembers meeting olga and jack and jenny after losing touch with his cousin john for many years were they kids that were easy to be around yes they were in reconnecting with john there was no talk of his failed past relationships or his other eight children just how content he was with his latest family he was so happy he said i couldn't be happy i've got a beautiful wife two kids and were they happy i believe so you know i've never seen them unhappy but olga was living a vastly different life to the one on display a decade into the marriage she complained to her gp that john was always controlling demanding she wear short skirts and her hair long he was also verbally and physically abusive especially to their son jack who he very nearly strangled while on holidays a terrifying attack olga relayed to her old boss and lawyer david brown there was an incident in paris where jack was playing up and john had him up against the wall and somebody was somebody in the lane and dragged the further off jack with more frequent physical attacks against jack and now also jenny the marriage broke down in 2016 with olga going to police to report the violence against her children to her dismay she discovered edwards had got in first he'd gone to police to put on the record that olga might report him he told them she was doing so only to help her in their divorce proceedings incredulously it worked for when olga finally did go to police they didn't take her allegations seriously they neglected to record her complaint as assault and they failed to check on the welfare of jack and jenny as was required by police protocol edwards had successfully played the system unfortunately the new south wales police didn't interview or talk to those children for former partner stacey this was an unforgivable police fail during her relationship with edwards she'd experienced his violence which saw him issued with an avo and charged with assault i'm not sure why those children weren't interviewed and avos weren't put into place well to know that that didn't happen because the information wasn't recorded properly how does that make you feel um that makes me feel devastated olga did her best to protect her children by moving to an address she kept secret from john no longer ordered to see their father 13 year old jenny and jack 15 were free to live without fear but as olga reported to police john was stalking her a complaint officers said did not warrant an avo he just treated her terribly it was frequent and she was frightened [Music] olga had more reason than she knew to be terrified during their fraught split edwards was trying every which way to get a gun license over the years he'd been knocked back twice because of convictions for malicious damage and assault as well as avos brought against him by three former partners but determined to find a way edwards discovered a little-known loophole then known as a commissioner's permit it can allow people who've been rejected gun licenses access to pistols and rifles there is no way that john edwards should ever have been given a gun license in my opinion anybody who had that police record would see that we had someone with um the ability to create harm the commissioner's permit which allowed safety training with guns was step one towards edwards getting a full gun license next he needed a gun club to train at after being rejected from one gun club for aggressive behaviour he was accepted at st mary's in sydney armed with two character references one from a friend the other from his trusting cousin michael how did he explain his interest in guns and and wanting to shoot he wanted us to sign a letter for him as good character so that he get a licence to take jake's shooting nothing wrong with that we didn't know anything of his past so we thought yeah that's fair enough do you have any regrets that you signed that character sure i do i wish the hell i never would have signed it i wish the hell he never would have got a license that everything would have been totally different i hope is it feasible that he was planning the murder of his children at that point i don't know i really can't answer that because he never at any stage looked like he was doing anything that was going to you know cause the kid's death that's for sure these are the gun models john edwards bought once he was fully licensed three rifles and two pistols and it was these two handguns the magnum revolver and nine millimeter glock that he collected from his club locker on the 4th of july 2018 so angry at the time that he broke the locker door a telling hint to his state of mind not that anyone at the gun club did anything about it well i'm sorry where's your duty of care why would the police not phoned and said we've got somebody with guns in their possession who's not a sound mind instead the very next day john edwards was allowed to continue on his premeditated path to murdering his two children first he had to find them [Music] thursday the 5th of july 2018 and edwards leaves home in a hire car his children won't recognise he plans to find out where olga and the children live by following jenny home from school his first stop is a local car park from where he can see when jenny gets off the train he doesn't have to wait long 20 minutes later jenny arrives leaves the station and boards her bus home her father follows soon after jenny gets off the bus and starts her short walk home unaware john is stalking her in his car as jenny is about to enter the front door of her home edwards pulls into the driveway at 4 59 pm he chases jenny into the house she runs to her brother jack john finds his children huddled together under jack's desk but he shows no mercy he fires his glock pistol 14 times shooting them in the chest head and [Music] hands this most shocking and unthinkable crime takes all of two minutes at 501 pm edwards runs out of the house to return to his own home where an hour later he kills himself [Music] i know it must be very difficult but when you draw your mind to the last moments on this planet for those two children how would you describe oh that would have would have been terrifying would have been terrifying i just can't imagine it to be honest with you nor can one imagine the agony olga suffered as she returned home to learn her husband had committed the cruelest act of vengeance against her brutally extinguishing the lives of her two precious children how did you learn that john edwards had killed his two children she was so stressed and she was screaming and crying and eventually i got the message that john shot my kids to the words john has shot john shot my kids i was just absolutely shocked even though i thought he was a terrible person i was absolutely shocked she came home from work and the children were dead [Music] on the 5th of july 2018 13 year old jenny edwards and her 15 year old brother jack were stalked and killed by their estranged father john edwards it's a crime that is near impossible to comprehend it was quite clear jack had tried to protect his sister jack had tried to make sure his sister wasn't harmed and you know one's heart went out for that boy and girl in that moment what sort of a man can see his two children cowering and hiding from him trying to get away from him under a desk and shoot them with a pistol multiple times what sort of a man can do that a killer john edwards was not a nice old bloke who was a bit broken by the breakup of his sixth relationship john edwards was a killer there is a special term for men like john edwards they're known as family annihilators and according to uk criminologist david wilson that meant edward's children were always going to be his target [Music] with family annihilators like this they reduce their their family to simply possessions that they own they're part of their chattel and that was the overwhelming thing that i felt meant that he annihilates jack and jenny to punish olga because she was the one that he felt most proprietal over that their offspring was simply his chattel he owned them edwards achieved what he set out to do his ex-wife olga would survive just five months before succumbing to the agony of losing her children we were supposed to see her that week she sent a message saying could she put it off and could we see her next week and that was the day with the same day that we later heard that olga took her own life as one of edward's former partners stacy believes she was lucky to have got away from him with her life in 1998 after she tried to end their relationship he revealed his monstrous side during a violent outburst at his home i went through the front door the front door was dead locked and i was thrown into a wall and over a heater pushing throwing pulling hair telling me i'm gonna die so that must be absolutely terrifying um it was beyond terrifying and i did not think i was gonna come out of that house alive what made you fear for your life in that moment because he told me that he had a gun that he was going to kill me he told me that i wasn't going to go and be with someone else those things were not going to happen it was here in edward's former home in a leafy sydney suburb that the shocking ordeal played out i was down on the road and i was thrown to the footpath and dragged up to the front door which is just here right that's a long way a very long way stacy was held captive by edwards threatened and beaten for seven hours before she tricked him into believing she'd stay with him if first he allowed her to go home instead she raced to the closest police station when i ran into the police station i was screaming with injuries and cuts and ripped clothes and i said he's going to go to my house and he's going to kill my family and they dispatch six police cars straight to the address edwards was arrested at her house and charged with assault police reassured stacey he would go to jail but at trial she says it was her character that came under attack and police lost the photos of her injuries from that night without that evidence the case was thrown out i'm the one person in 1998 who could have put him in jail and had he been in jail no gun registry no police officer nobody could have ignored olga or any other woman who came to them for assistance but stacy was not the only one to suffer or complain to police there was a litany of allegations made by former partners and children of psychological abuse and violence including whipping in all over the years police took out four avo's against edwards uk criminologist david wilson whose specialty lies in the unique and tragic world of family annihilation believes edwards had long ago set himself on the path to murder here's a man who's 67 here's a man who has learned behaviors and never been punished for those behaviors here's a man who has access to firearms john edwards did not snap this was a very carefully planned family annihilation in all kinds of different ways never having met edwards in life david can study him in death by analyzing a 64-page letter edwards wrote to olga just after they separated my immediate impression was oh this conforms to a type of family annihilator that i've seen before a self-righteous family annihilator somebody who will seek to blame all of their problems onto their partner this is a man was impression managing and we should not fall for it but label it accordingly that this was a toxic man who's a killer despite being a manipulative frightening and controlling man edwards was determined to prove in his letter to olga as he did throughout his life to others that he was a dedicated husband and doting father only ever motivated by love why you have torn apart our marriage and family was john edwards in any way motivated by love it is not love to beat up one's partner that's violence it is not love to put a bullet in your child's head that's murder and let's label it accordingly he simply was somebody that was motivated by a terrible misogyny it's just it's just a waste of full beautiful lives as far as i'm concerned yep do you still consider john edwards life a beautiful life no but not a beautiful life but i don't know you know i only know the side that i see i don't know anything else basically even in death edwards tried to control the narrative especially against olga in personalized suicide notes edwards wrote a number of letters including one to his cousin michael did it give you any insights into what happened he said that he didn't want that evil woman bringing his children up he just couldn't stand it and he was basically at the end of his tether the vengeance in his act and he didn't kill olga to protect his children from this so-called no he did a woman he killed the children yeah i can't understand it can you forgive it um no i don't think you could ever forgive him for killing his kids no matter what you know commissioner fuller thank you for your time it's been judged that the deaths of jack and jennifer were preventable how badly did new south wales police fail those children and their mother as we struggle to understand how this man could commit a crime that goes so cruelly against any natural instincts the broader question is how is john edwards able to do so two powerful handguns he used to kill his teenage son and daughter how could this violent man legally access guns which enabled him to slaughter his two teenage children what was your reaction to the coroner's recommendations as commissioner of new south wales police mick fuller leads an organisation firmly in the spotlight for allowing john edwards to so spectacularly fall through the cracks with such devastating consequences [Music] so how did it happen why did it happen the systems the processes the people let jack and jennifer and olga down absolutely and and i am sorry for that the murder of jack and jenny by edwards in 2018 and the consequent suicide of their mother olga five months later has been the subject of a new south wales coroner's inquest last wednesday the court identified critical failures by police and the new south wales gun registry but some of those failings have already been addressed according to police commissioner fuller for mine the most important one was making changes to the firearms registry so people like john edwards will never get firearms lawfully again and and we have achieved that by the start of 2019. does it cause you some embarrassment some shame that it took the deaths of those children for those reforms to be in place as the commissioner and and i'm the gatekeeper for the firearms act yes it does now now i've got to take responsibility for that but i changed the leadership immediately we changed the structure to ensure this can't happen again but will i have regrets about these deaths yes i will the sad truth for olga is when she went to police for help she was let down by people who did not believe her and the officers didn't record her allegations properly which meant john edwards wasn't flagged as dangerous when he applied for his gun license we spend an enormous amount of time trying to ascertain the truth in these matters now we can't always in the case of olga going to the local police station to report violence against her children there was no attempt to find out who was telling the truth there was no follow-up with the children she was written off absolutely chose to believe john edwards i agree and again i am eternally sorry for that how different would the outcome have been if police took olga's allegations against john edwards seriously how different would the outcome be today he wouldn't have got access to a firearm and that's key but the reality is new south wales police and i as the commissioner need to accept responsibility for all the failings the photos of the kids and olga those are etched in my mind forever if this story has raised issues there is support and counselling available by calling 1 800 respect which is 1 800 or lifeline on 13 11 14. hello i'm tara brown thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on dot com dot a u and the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 502,779

Rating: 4.7056751 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, john edwards, olga, russian, murder, children, gun, license, police, commissioner, let down, avo, domestic, violent, history, ignored, preventable, tragedy, shot, sydney, australia, crime, investigation, jenny, jack, edwards, criminal

Id: RgS-2dXzX34

Length: 26min 28sec (1588 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/dmachin85]

Yet another NSW Police fuck up.

[u/nomans750]

remember when Tara Brown & crew got thrown in a Beirut jail for attempted kidnapping ...pepperidge farm remembers