Niall Donald

Yeah.

So, I mean, it's an incredibly sort of heart-rending tale when you actually hear it and, you know...

a child of that age should, you know, it should be just the most normal of human instincts to seek to protect the child.

Even beyond the fatal injuries that he suffered, it seems to be an attempt to break the spirit of the child in the build up, which the judge actually also spoke about in

In the case, John Paul's case, he said he was left on the basis of the evidence found in his bedroom without the basic comforts of sheets on a duvet.

This should have been a place of safety and comfort.

Much occurred, not only in his own home, but worse, in his bedroom, which turned into a place of fear.

So it becomes a kind of, obviously, like these sort of cases, it shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Yeah.

Any abuse that occurs to a child at that age, it's normal for the child.

It's shocking to say, you know, so he probably, this is a normal thing for him because that's what is, that's what's happening.

Now, it's not normal, clearly, but a child can't, you know, look at it objectively.

So again, in the aftermath of the case, which I think it's brought home by the fact that people can be named and, you know, it is important because it makes people, I suppose, think about the case in a different way.

But in the aftermath, Mason's mother's family have come out and certainly his grandmother has, the family has spoken about how the grandmother contacted Tusla.

Now, it's easy to kick too slow with all of these cases, but certainly, you know, according to that testimony, they were aware that there was issues.

Yeah, and I mean, look, we don't have the easier quick answers to that.

But I mean, I think everybody accepts that these things shouldn't be allowed to happen.

And of course, it comes in the back of a case involving Wade O'Reilly.

who killed his son Usheen Redden just last week.

And again, a very, very shocking case.