Luke Batty death: Victorian police missed chance to arrest father because of IT glitch

Updated February 15, 2014 06:03:57

Video: Police were warned before Luke Batty's death that he may have been in danger. (7.30)

Related Story: Anguished mum's plea for understanding after son killed on cricket field

Related Story: Small town in shock after father kills 11yo son on cricket oval

Map: Tyabb 3913

Police have revealed they missed an opportunity to arrest a man before he killed his 11-year-old son at a junior cricket club south-east of Melbourne.

Greg Anderson, 54, was shot by police when he threatened officers with a knife after killing Luke Batty in front of stunned onlookers following cricket training in Tyabb on Wednesday evening.

Anderson died in hospital on Thursday morning.

Luke's mother, Rosie Batty, who was at the cricket ground when the tragedy unfolded, spoke on Thursday about her "shock" and "disbelief" at the killing and said her estranged husband had struggled with mental illness.

This morning Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said officers had spoken to Anderson about reports of assault allegations on January 27, but had not been aware that he already had five outstanding arrest warrants against him.

He said problems with the police IT system meant the officers would not have known about the warrants at the time.

"Our members who attended at that scene would not have had visibility of the existence of those warrants when they attended at this address because of shortcomings in our IT systems," he said.

"Now, many of you would be aware our IT systems have been subject to review over the last 10 years or so where there's been significant criticisms about their inability to help us do the work we need to do.

"This seems to be another indication of a problem with those systems."

Mr Lay said there had been "significant investment in the last little while" to improve police computer systems but was "not saying that the IT system was the overall issue here, it was one part of it".

Victoria Police have launched an investigation into the way they handled the case.

Mr Lay said the review would run alongside several other probes into the incident, including a homicide squad inquiry, a police investigation into Luke's death, and a police ethical standards review into the police shooting.

He said police had been dealing with complaints against Anderson for at least a decade and the five outstanding warrants were related to domestic violence.

Video: Ken Lay says police will probe how authorities handled the Greg Anderson case. (ABC News)

"This is very, very early stages of an investigation and, again, I encourage everyone to let the work be done before we start making determinations about what was done well and what was not done well," he said.

"These investigations will look not only into the events of the night but all the relevant circumstances and response of a whole history of interaction with Luke, Rosie and their family.

"We need to understand how we can prevent these incidents from occurring. It is my hope that Luke's death will be a very, very strong reminder to our community on the insidious and pervading nature of family violence.

"Hopefully it will be a watershed in improving the way we respond to these issues, for not only Victoria Police but the broader community."

He said Luke's death highlighted the plight of families dealing with domestic violence issues.

"For the last decade, Rosie has been living in fear, tormented by the hands of a person who loved her. She's not alone," he said.

"She is one of thousands and thousands of women who live in similar circumstances in our state at the moment."

Mentally ill not always violent: Commissioner of Children

Meanwhile, Victoria's Commissioner for Children, Bernie Geary, on Friday morning also signalled a review of the services provided to Luke and Ms Batty's family and how they may have impacted on the family.

"Our sympathies go out to this unbelievably brave woman and to hear her speak is just actually inspiring," he told ABC local radio.

"It's a sad story of the anguish and incomprehensible actions that happen sometimes, that travel with mental illness.

"The intention of the review is to look at how we can enhance services, look at what works best, and in this case what maybe hasn't worked."

Mr Geary says there are often no magic answers in such tragic cases.

"There is so much about a case like this that is incomprehensible and certainly not predictable," he said.

'He loved his son'

Video: Watch Rosie Batty's emotional tribute to her son (ABC News)

Rosie Batty paid an emotional tribute to Luke the day after his death, saying her11-year-old son loved his struggling father.

He is worried that people with mental illness will be stigmatised as being violent.

"I find a coward present more often in a family violence issue than I do a person with a mental illness," he said.

"I don't want people with mental illness to be tarred with the brush of violence always.

"There are so many people in the community who suffer bravely with mental illness issues [who] are certainly not violent."

The Tyabb community gathered at the sports ground on Thursday night to pay their respects to Luke and show support for his family.

Ms Batty said her estranged partner was a man who loved his son but had suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness for two decades.

"He was a little boy in a growing body that felt pain and sadness and fear for his mum, and he always believed he would be safe with his dad," she said.

"[I told him] 'You'll always love your dad. You won't always like what they do or say, but you'll always love your dad, and he'll always love you'."

Photo: Students visit Tyabb Football & Cricket Club to pay their respects to Luke Batty. (AAP: Joe Sabljak)

Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, crime, law-crime-and-justice, mental-health, tyabb-3913

First posted February 14, 2014 08:19:35