Massive Petition Calls On Western Australia To Investigate Murder Of Indigenous Baby

A petition calling on the West Australian Attorney General to investigate the brutal death of an Indigenous baby has racked up tens of thousands of signatures.

This story contains images and names of Indigenous people who have died.

Since the documentary See What You Made Me Do debuted on SBS last week, the Change.org campaign has received support from more than 27,000 people.

They'll all backing the National Justice Project's (NJP) call for WA Attorney General John Quigley to investigate the circumstances that led to Charlie Mullaleydying.

The baby boy was left at a crime scene on the state's north coast in March 2013 while police arrested his mum Tamica.

The NJP says his mum was the victim of a savage domestic violence attack at the hands of her partner Mervyn Bell.

A witness called Triple Zero when they saw her 'bashed, naked and bleeding on a street in Broome' and police arrived to suss out the situation.

Authorities have been criticised for not treating Tamica with sensitivity and have been accused of aggravating her.

The petition states: "Instead of helping and comforting her they agitated her, a vulnerable victim of abuse, which resulted in Tamica being arrested for assault on them!"

Tamica was hauled away and Charlie's grandfather Ted Mullaley pleaded with officers to look after Charlie, but the baby boy was given to a friend before being given back to Mervyn Bell.

Doctors later described Tamica's injuries as 'critical', according to the NJP.

Mr Mullaley called Triple Zero multiple times to warn Charlie was in danger if he was being looked after by Bell. Police eventually started looking for him 10 hours after the initial call for help and they put out an alert, however the wrong registration plate number was issued.

The petition states police warned Ted they would arrest him if he kept calling 000.

Ted's hunch was eventually correct and Bell was found guilty of killing Charlie as well as sexually abusing the baby boy.

Bell took Charlie to a house in Karratha, almost 1,000 kilometres away from Broome, and inflicted unconscionable abuse on him for hours.

Charlie was found to have broken bones, third-degree burns, internal bleeding, bruising and severe lacerations. Bell was sentenced to life in jail.

But questions are still being asked eight years later why police acted the way they did that night.

The viral petition is calling on Attorney General John Quigley to launch a coronial inquest or parliamentary inquiry into the way WA police treated the situation on that night and 'failed Tamica, Ted and Baby Charlie'.

They also want the AG to meet with the Mullaley family, and introduce an investigation into 'how the Crime and Corruption Commission failed to focus on why WA police did not take steps to ensure that baby Charlie was left in a safe place and was safe from harm'.

Featured Image Credit: Supplied

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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