Dean Shillingsworth
February 25, 2005
- October 11, 2007
On October 17, 2007, some children playing near a pond
in a park in Mandurama Reserve at Ambarvale, New South Wales, Australia
found a suitcase that contained the body of a child.
Rachel Pfitzner had three children in all and each
of her children had a different biological father. Dean was in the middle
between his older
half sister, who was eight and younger half brother
who was six at the time of his death.
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 ........
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Only four months prior to his death, Rachel Pfitzner
had moved into
a new home, a public housing estate in Pindarus
Place, Rosemeadow, with her children, including Dean. Calls to The NSW
Department of Community Services were made concerning the welfare of Dean
and
that prompted a court order to be made and custody
of Dean was
transferred to his grandmother. Dean had been living
with his paternal grandparents in Tamworth, up until June when he had gone
for a visit with is mother. Rachel had never brought home from that visit.
When police went to talk to her about the court order, Rachel said that
Dean was already in the custody of the DOCS. That was, of course, a lie.
Between 11am and 11:30am on October 11, 2007, Rachel
had shaken Dean and thrown him to the floor. She believed she had killed
him so she wrapped his body in plastic, stuff him inside of a suitcase
and
dumped his body into the pond where his body was
discovered by the children six days later. Four days later, Rachel, who
was on parole,
was arrested and charged with murder. Rachel's
father said that he
had only been able to see his grandson three times
since he had been
born. It had been about six weeks since he had
last seen him he said:
"I never got the chance to cuddle him once,
nor to hear
him call me poppy"
Neighbors had thought the way Rachel had behaved
was odd, though
none of them suspected she would kill her child:
"He was very quiet; we saw him once or twice,
but
never with his mother when she left the house
to go to
the shops. She was always pushing the baby
in the pram
and had the little girl with her. My son
said he was obsessive. He woke up one night and was so hungry he
ate a whole loaf of bread. We had little
to do with them. Most times it was through the little girl, when she would
go around to neighbours' houses with a note
asking for cigarettes. Other times she would be playing on her own
in the street on her bike. We had not seen
anyone at
the house since last Sunday. Then two days
ago police
came to my house asking questions, that's
when we
realized. I'm still pretty numb"
Greg Massey - neighbor
Kevin Greene, a Community Services Minister, defended
the way the
case was handled. He said that several calls made
to their helping did
not indicated that there was a threat against the
life of Dean:
"The reports to the Department of Community
Service,
DOCS helpline that in some way involved the
young boy,
I'm clearly advised by the director general
of DOCS, that none of these reports could reasonably be assessed that
the child's life was in danger. "I'm not
minimizing the seriousness or the tragedy of this case. I'm not
suggesting these reports were unimportant"
The town continue to mourn for Dan and the Reverend
David Cole
from the Rosemeadow Anglican Church said that he
would leave a
service for Dean with three simple prayers:
"One is for the family who's grieving, so
Dean's family,
simply that they will find the courage and
the strength t
o face the future without Dean. We are going
to pray for
the community, that they make sensible choices
from
this point on. And then, just for Dean himself,
we are
going to ask that God treat him with mercy
and kindness"
Dean's biological father, Paul Shillingsworth, was
in jail at the time of
his death, for breaking parole on a bodily harm
sentence. Paul had
applied for a transfer so that he could attend
the funeral of his son.
Beverly says that Paul was a violent man and that
there had been
instances of domestic violence in the relationship
between Rachel and
Paul.
Paul's family said he was
a talented, traditional dancer in a troupe
that included several of
his brothers and they had performed at many
events including the opening
of the Mount Druitt Medical Center. They did not see the violent man that
Beverly saw. Both sides of the family
did agree that Dean was a
bright, lively little boy. Beverly said that his
favorite words were food
and biderman:
"He loved me, I loved
him. I was very, very close to him.
He was a normal two-year-old.
The terrible twos. He
loved Chicken In a
Biskit. I used to go over there every Sunday. I would take enough for all
the kids but he always managed to find a box himself. He was very smart."
Donald Shillingsworth said
that his nephew loved his toy motorcycle,
jumping castle and jumping
on the trampoline:
"He had everything,
he got what he wanted"
When Paul was let out of jail,
Rachel's family was disgusted at the
way he was treated, like
a hero. Paul had been in jail on charges of
sexual assault, against Rachel.
A family member spoke out:
"In the lead-up to his
release from jail last week, she had been terrified for her safety. It
had been made clear to her
Shillingsworth would
be coming back the moment he was
out. Psychologically,
she had felt tortured"
The same family member said
that they were unable to attend the
memorial service held for
Dean, due to threats made against them.
Detective Superintendent,
Geoff Beresford said that they were making
rounds, patrolling and that
there has been a bad history between the
two families of Dean.
Rachel's mother, Beverly, said that she had
called the DOCS to get some help for her to raise Dean properly, she said
she was told that there were not enough resources to help her daughter.
Beverly said
she had been having trouble bonding with Dean because
he had been
living with his grandmother, Ann Coffey, who had
custody of him for
the last year:
"What can we do about it? We haven't got the
kind of resources for that"
DOCS worker
Rachel had visited the DOCS office earlier in the
year and was asking
for help and advice on how she could regain custody
of her son. With
no help available, Rachel decided to just keep
Dean after a scheduled
visit on June 7. From the start, Rachel had trouble
raising him. Dean's
grandfather, Edmund Capan said that at least three
checks were made
concerning Dean, in the month of July after they
contacted police to
say that Rachel had not returned him from her visit.
Edmund told
police that he was concerned for Dean's well being:
"We knew she couldn't handle him"
Edmund also said that something more should have
been done to
help his grandson:
"They DOCS should have done something. They
could
have went out there and could have helped
in some way"
Beverly disagreed with what Edmund had said:
"I wouldn't say she wasn't coping, she was
struggling.
She was able to cook meals for them every
night.
She fed them and clothed them."
Kevin Greene said that action was taken, though
he wouldn't say what
type of action it was:
"DOCS did receive a call to its helpline and
the call
was assessed and there was some action taken.
Sadly,
there is no perfect child protection system
in the world
but we want to do the best we can to continue
to
improve the child protection system."
On October 29, 2008, Rachel was in court where she
said that she
though Dean was dead when she stuck him into the
suitcase and put
it into the pond. Belinda Rigg, Rachel's attorney
asked Diane little, the
Forensic Pathologist if his death happened the
way his mother said it
had and then she told Rachel's account of what
happened. Rachel
cried while she listened to her attorney say that
she had shaken her
son, thrown him to the ground and he had wet himself,
become
unresponsive, made gurgling sounds and had foam
coming from his
mouth. Belinda then said that Dean's hand had frozen
into a claw and
when she checked, Rachel thought he had no heartbeat.
Rachel then
attempted to do CPR on Dean.
Diane Little said there was a possibility that Dean
had been alive when he was stuffed into the suitcase, however, since he
had been dead for
at least a week, his body was badly decomposed
and the actual cause
of his death could not be determined. Diane also
said that a lack of
bleeding in his brain suggests that he had not
been shaken to death.
She said that he could possibly have suffocated.
"Is one of the possibilities in this case,
as you see it, that death could have been caused by the placing of the
child, who appeared to be deceased but wasn't, into the plastic bag and
then into the suitcase"
Belinda Rigg
"If he was completely unconscious but not
yet dead,
that's a possibility"
Diane Little
Edmund Caban was outside the courtroom and said
that he and his
family were relieved that this case was finally
going to go to trial. He
also said they were all looking forward to the
truth coming out.
"That's the one thing I hope for"
Edmund said that it had been a long, troubling struggle
for him and
his family:
"but, we are getting there"
Rachel did not enter a plea and was held without
bail for trail. Her
trial date was set for December 5, 2008 where she
would face the
NSW Supreme Court.
Rachel was in court on December 12, 2008. Rachel
appeared in court
though a video, instead of in person and only answered
questions,
such as "Can you see'' with a short "Yep", from
the Silverwater prison
for women. Ugo Parente, her attorney was pleading
for compassion
for his client. Dean's fathers family was pleading
for justice:
"I just ask that she be shown a bit of compassion
at
this time. It is a sensitive matter and it
has to be
dealt with fairly"
Ugo Parente
"We just want justice for the family"
Rita Wright - Dean's Aunt
Rachel is held in a protection cell in the Silverwater
Woman's prison,
at her own request. She contacts her mother on
a regular basis. Paul
Shillingsworth is also in prison, once again, after
being release on
parole that was revoked after new charges were
filed against him.
Rachel was due to appear in court, once again through
video link, on
February 6, 2009.
Read
about a memorial and Dean's funeral
UPDATE:
Dean Shillingsworth mum pleads guilty to murder
August 18, 2009 10:13am
A WOMAN has pleaded guilty to the murder of her
two-year-old son, whose body was found in a suitcase dumped in a Sydney
pond.
Rachel Pfitzner, 27, pleaded guilty today in the
NSW Supreme Court to the murder of Dean Shillingsworth on October 11, 2007
at Rosemeadow.
His body was found in a suitcase pulled from a duck
pond at Ambarvale, in Sydney's south-west.
In June, Pfitzner had pleaded guilty to the lesser
charge of manslaughter.
But the Crown representative then told the judge
he was not in a position to say whether that plea would be accepted.
When the murder charge was read out today, Pfitzner
admitted the more serious offence.
Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC told Justice Robert
Allan Hulme a statement of agreed facts would be forwarded to him before
the sentencing hearing.
That hearing has been listed for October 8.
The
Herald Sun
Thank you to Emma for alerting me to this update.
I am so glad that
so many people are willing to help me keep these
pages up to date
with the latest news about the cases of these children.
For information about preventing child abuse in Australia
click below. If they can't help you, ask for someone who can. NEVER
give up looking for help for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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