Anguished dad of schoolgirl savagely murdered in crime that shocked Australia reveals his worst fear about her killer

The father of a schoolgirl brutally murdered in a crime so unspeakable Australians will never know the full extent of it has said the justice system got the killer’s sentence “100 percent wrong”.

Bridgette ‘Biddy’ Porter, 10, was killed in a horrific attack on a farm in rural NSW in July 2020.

The identity of her killer, a mentally ill 14-year-old girl who knew her, cannot be revealed for legal reasons.

Biddy’s injuries were so horrific that they were hidden from the public for twenty years.

On advice from the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the family initially supported seeking a ‘special’ sentence.

This meant that in 2021 a judge ruled the crime ‘proven but (the suspect) is not criminally liable’ due to her mental health problems.

Biddy’s parents, Dominic and Rebekah, were told this would mean their daughter’s killer would be locked up for longer under the care of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, which is overseeing her future release.

But they were both furious when they discovered she had been granted day release earlier this year.

Dominic Porter, who suffered severe PTSD after the death of his daughter, feels let down by the justice system and is campaigning for changes to victims’ rights.

“They (the criminal justice system) have it 100 percent wrong. It is according to the detectives. I think this is in the eyes of the Australian public,” Porter told Daily Mail Australia.

The former bank manager fears his daughter’s killer will soon taste freedom – and is alarmed that she has received more support than those left to pick up the pieces of her crimes.

“It’s going to happen, she’s going to walk free,” Mr Porter told this publication.

“She has been given more benefits in juvenile detention, as I call it, in every aspect: mental health, physical care, room and board: she is effectively being paid to be in prison. And any member of the Australian public would not be happy about that.”

Meanwhile, after Biddy was murdered, her parents were only entitled to support payments of $7,500.

Mr Porter has particular anger towards the DPP and the MHRT and has called for an investigation into both.

It’s a move backed by independent Orange member Phillip Donato, who will present an e-petition signed by almost 40,000 people to debate Biddy’s case in NSW Parliament next week.

“There needs to be some accountability,” Porter said.

‘You cannot say that no one is responsible for what happened. And that is essentially what the Australian justice system has done.”

Mr Porter said the DPP was a “silent force” that paid little attention to the wishes of the victim.

“They make decisions, they make changes, they do what they want, and none of it takes into account the victim’s perspective,” he said.

‘It’s all about protecting the killer or perpetrator their best interests.”

It’s a view supported by Biddy’s mother and Mr Porter’s ex-wife, Rebekah, who told a recent episode of Spotlight that the family was denied access to key court documents.

‘We had a brief meeting with the DPP before we went to trial where they convinced us that the best course of action would be to go for the proven but criminally irresponsible act due to mental illness as it would mean that they one put away for much longer,” she told the programme.

It is understood Mr Porter and his ex-wife Rebekah had around 90 meetings with the DPP.

But Porter insists the system needs to be ‘overhauled’ to better support victims.

‘I want to change victims’ rights. “I don’t want any other family to go through what we went through,” he said.

‘I don’t want to blow smoke down my own chimney, so to speak, but I come from a fairly highly educated family. My father is a clinical psychologist.

‘We have an extraordinary amount of resources, but that doesn’t make it any easier. We couldn’t navigate the system.

“But what happens when something like this happens to a lower socio-economic family?

Mr Porter was a very successful bank manager, but now he is unable to work and relies on the benefits of Centrelink.

“I have been a very successful bank manager for most of my career and now I can no longer work,” he said.

‘I’m stuck. It’s completely paralyzing.’

Mr Porter claims the way the criminal justice system has treated him ‘wouldn’t pass the pub test’.

“I could walk into any pub in Australia now, today, next year, next week in five years and explain my story,” he said.

‘And would the Australian guy or woman sitting at the bar believe what I went through? No, they wouldn’t do that.’

He added: “I will fight until the day I die. That’s what Bridget would have wanted.’

Biddy’s parents, who are divorced, are being supported by Advocacy Australia in their campaign for justice.

“Unfortunately, Biddy’s family’s circumstances are not unique,” ​​said Clare Collins, chair of Advocacy Australia.

“With a gap of inequality between victims of heinous crimes and perpetrators, there is something terribly wrong when NSW government agencies with the responsibility to defend victims’ rights fail to meet community expectations.”

Advocacy Australia is also calling for a coronial inquiry to investigate whether Biddy’s murder could have been prevented.

The DPP issued a statement in response to the Spotlight interview expressing sympathy for Biddy’s parents but defending their approach.

“The Office was in regular and ongoing contact with the family, answering their questions where possible and taking their views into account at every stage,” the spokesperson said.

They added: ‘The various possible approaches and outcomes were discussed with the family before the Crown determined how to proceed.

“The family told the ODPP that they preferred to proceed with a special verdict, with the key question for the court being whether the suspect had a mental health defense available to him.”

The spokesman said that had no special sentence been handed down, Biddy’s killer would likely have been ‘convicted of manslaughter on the basis of significant impairment due to mental illness’.

And since the perpetrator was a child, “the law also recognizes that the younger a child is, the lower the moral culpability, which would further shorten the length of the sentence imposed.”

‘When a suspect is accused of murder, but their intellectual disability leads the court to make a special finding about a proven but not criminally responsible act, they are held as a forensic patient by the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) until they are assessed as appropriate for release,” the spokesperson added.

‘This must take into account a number of factors, including whether their release would endanger themselves or others.

‘Similar considerations arise when the MHRT considers day release. These are not decisions involving the ODPP.”

Daily Mail Australia approached the DPP for further comment.

A spokesperson for the MHRT said it ‘does not comment on a patient’s details outside of the hearing/assessment process’.