source : the age
A Queensland boy who suffered extensive burns in a house fire that killed his brother later claimed his father had tried to kill the boys, and that his older sibling laid over him to save him.
An inquest began earlier this week into the 2017 case, in which one of the boys died after suffering burns to 95 per cent of his body.
Officers who attended the scene at the rural property during the blaze told the court they saw the two burnt children crying on the couch, and found the father nearby in another home having a shower while holding a cigarette, and not answering questions.
The family cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The inquest on Wednesday heard evidence from a Child Safety witness, who spoke of several disclosures the surviving boy made to support workers in the years after the incident.
In 2018, the boy at daycare said: “My dad burnt me in the fire. He burnt me with a lighter.”
In another disclosure in 2021, the boy said he would still be with his father if he had not blown a candle. “I blew it three times and started a big fire,” he said. He also said he missed his mother, felt guilty about his brother dying, and described his brother as a “black and purple butterfly now”.
Later that year, he said he knew who started the fire and claimed it was not him or his brother.
In one incident in 2022, the boy was at school, where his class was discussing fire drills. The court heard the teacher was answering questions about how fires start, and explaining they could be deliberately lit or accidental.
One child said that that was what had happened to the boy. The boy replied it was not, and that he was asleep.
“That’s what happened to me. It was my idiot dad. He tried to kill me and [the brother]. Fricking idiot,” the boy said.
In 2024, the court heard the boy said he did not like talking to his grandmother because she had lied and said the mother started the fire.
At another incident at school in 2025, the boy was distressed after a violent incident and said: “I want to kill my dad, he should be in jail. My brother was burnt from the inside out. He saved me. He laid on top of me.”
A family member told the court both parents had used drugs, while the father was an alcoholic who drank daily.
She told the court that as she attended the scene during the fire, she was given two different stories by the father and grandmother about what happened.
The woman said the father told her to tell police the boys’ mother started the fire.
Coroner Megan Fairweather is expected to look into several factors, including how the fire started, the family environment, the relationship between the boys’ parents, and the police investigation.
The inquest continues.
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