True Crime with Rachel Shannon
She WARNED Them About her Son, Then He Was MURDERED In Front of EVERYONE
08 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What led to the tragic events surrounding Luke Batty?
No one loved Luke more than Craig, his father.
What I can say is it's a horrific scene. We've got the death of a young boy.
You're insulting my right of intelligence. You're denying my right to legally represent myself. I do not wish to answer them.
We have to look at the safety of women and children and not place the onus of responsibility onto their shoulders.
Today's case is yet another tragic story that involves one man who simply couldn't control his own emotions and took it out on everyone around him. And even after this man threatened violence, caused physical harm, and showed a red flag after red flag, the system continued to ignore it and let him slip by, all leading to his final act of violence.
The way this case played out is truly devastating and sickening. And once you hear the details of this case, I know you'll be just as frustrated as I am. Rosie Batty was born in East Midlands County in Nottinghamshire, England. There, she grew up on a farm with her two younger brothers, Robert and John. When Rosie was only six years old, Her mother tragically died of peritonitis.
Obviously, this was such a devastating blow to the family, and being that Rosie and her brothers were so young, they grew up with a lot of questions and confusion about why they would never see their mother again. Despite the struggles, though, she made the most of her life. She was raised by her father alongside nannies and her maternal grandmother who loved her and her brothers.
She was surrounded by her farm animals and a family who raised her to develop a strong work ethic and resilience. After graduating high school, Rosie really didn't have much of a plan in life. She started work as a bank clerk, but she knew that she had a desire to travel the world.
First, she got a job in Austria before making her way to Australia in 1986, where she continued work as a secretary, then as a nanny. For the years that followed, she worked, made friends, and traveled more. She returned back to the UK for some time, but came back to Australia to live more long-term. There, she settled in Melbourne, eventually buying a home in the suburbs.
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Chapter 2: How did Rosie Batty's past influence her relationship with Greg Anderson?
He never threatened Luke. He never said a bad word to or about him. He had high standards for Luke, trying to teach him good morals. He even told him, we never use our fists, we use our words. Yes, Greg hurt Luke emotionally by him having to witness how he treated his mother, but Greg never hurt Luke or even threatened him.
That is why she continued to let him see his son for at least the first few years of his life. But then, by the time Luke was just three years old, Rosie's fears that Greg would turn violent were confirmed. Greg had become so angry that he physically attacked Rosie. He flew into a rage, then threw Rosie against a wall, holding her there by the skin on her neck.
He then shoved her to the ground, all while screaming at her, threatening to knock her into next week. This all happened right in front of three-year-old Luke. At this point, Rosie knew that she needed to get police involved. This was now going beyond threats and intimidation and was now getting violent. However, when she called the police, they never officially filed the charges.
Obviously, this was incredibly frustrating for Rosie who started to feel like Greg would never have to take accountability for his actions. After this first incident, which was sometime in 2005, Rosie got to work writing her own will. Greg had threatened her multiple times that if she ever stopped him from seeing Luke, he would kill her. she was terrified that he would make good on that threat.
So she wanted to make sure everything was taken care of in the event that she could no longer protect Luke. As all of this was happening, Rosie had actually met a new man with whom she started a new relationship. For the five years that she was in this relationship, the abuse from Greg took a pause. He backed off and Rosie lived with Luke happily and safe. Things were good. But then,
This relationship with the new man ended, and as soon as that happened, Greg was back in her life, causing chaos and turmoil. And by May of 2012, the violence made its way back into Rosie's life. Greg flew into one of his rages, and this time he attacked Rosie, threatening to beat her with a vase. This was all in front of Luke, who is now old enough to understand what was going on.
During the attack, Luke grabbed the phone to dial 000. He reported what was happening to his mom but police took quite a while to arrive so the situation was still absolutely terrifying for Luke who would have been almost 10 at the time. Luke would later tell the authorities that during the attack he tried pulling his father off of his mother but he was too little.
He wishes he could be bigger because maybe then he could have protected his mother. Absolutely heartbreaking to hear. After the assault, once police finally responded, Greg was arrested and charged with the assault.
The following day, a risk assessment was done on the family and it was determined that both Rosie and Luke should be identified as protected persons and that the probability of future harm was very likely. That is when an order of protection was issued against Greg. However, after the initial arrest, he was released, and the charges took several months to be authorized due to workload issues.
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Chapter 3: What warning signs did Rosie notice about Greg's behavior?
Do you understand the rights that have just been read to you? I understand what you've read to me. I want to know why you think that you've got a right to hold me at all. Okay. Do you wish to exercise any of these rights before the interview proceeds? The interview's finished. I said I do not wish to comment. You have nothing. There is nothing. So let's move on.
In fairness to yourself, I just need to get through these questions and then whatever you want to say after that, we can do that. I said I don't wish to say anything. So how can there be questions and answers? You're insulting my right of intelligence. Are you denying my right to legally represent myself by saying I do not wish to answer them? Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
No, I don't. I'm not denying you a right, that's why I'm asking. You've denied me because I told you I do not wish to answer anything. Yep. That's right. Now you're going to ask me a list of questions. Yep. You've denied me the right. Okay. So at this point in time, do you wish to exercise the right to call a lawyer or friend or relative? No. I wish to leave. You have nothing, I wish to leave.
You've arrested me before, it's gone through the Yeah. Why not? We'll just back up a bit. What's your age and date of birth? You still have that information from before. Yeah. It's on my driver's license. You're asking me questions in there. And I said I would not ask questions, and you're still finding that. Okay. But you again have not exercised the right that you asked
in the beginning that I could have. You have denied me my right by asking me my questions, top hand, constable. In the name of Jesus Christ you are. If I say to you later verse the 3rd of November 1959 would you agree? I'm going to suspend the interview at this point due to no participation from the accused.
After this interview, the responding officer requested a higher bail for Greg so that he wouldn't be released. He was violating the order of protection. And again, he was an unstable, aggressive man who clearly could overpower Rosie due to his size. He was dangerous. Despite these concerns though, his bail was reduced and he was let go.
The only stipulations he was given was that he was not allowed to go to the suburb where Rosie and Luke lived and where Luke went to school and played cricket, which to me... is absolutely ridiculous because he was already ordered to stay away from them, so why they thought this added stipulation would do anything is beyond me.
After being released on bail, the courts took another several months to process these new charges as well as the original charges. Yup, at this point, those original charges from the month prior still had not been addressed in court. Finally, by April of 2013, Rosie was called to court to give her evidence against Greg of him threatening and abusing her.
At this time, she told the courts of another incident that happened recently when Luke was alone with his dad. His dad was driving with Luke in the car when he pulled out a knife, showed it to Luke, and told him it could all end with this. When Rosie found out about that, she realized that whatever trust she had in Greg not to hurt their son was completely gone.
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Chapter 4: How did the system fail to protect Rosie and Luke from Greg?
Turns out, pretty much as soon as Greg got Luke alone by those nets, he struck his son multiple times with a cricket bat before pulling out a knife and stabbing him. He then began to stab himself. By this point, police officers had also arrived on scene and were attempting to calm down the situation and get Greg to surrender. They made a circle around Greg, ordering him to drop the knife.
He didn't, and he actually began to lunge at one of the officers with the knife, resulting in that officer shooting Greg to stop him from hurting anybody else. After he went down, paramedics got him into an ambulance for treatment. But as they did so, Greg asked them to let him die. And Greg would ultimately die from his injuries.
And tragically, 13-year-old Luke also died as a result of the attack carried out by his own father.
We've had an absolute tragedy occur here tonight, about 6.40pm. The police have arrived and they've been confronted by a male, about 50 years old, armed with a knife. They've attempted to use less than lethal force, foam. It's been unsuccessful. They've then discharged a firearm, shooting that male once in the chest. He's at the Alfred Hospital at the moment in a life-threatening condition.
A further examination of the scene has revealed the body of a 12-year-old boy. The male that the police shot was the father of the deceased boy. We've heard some pretty horrific stories of the man. When police arrived, the man was bashing the kid with a cricket bat. Can you confirm that? What I can say is it's a horrific scene. We've got the death of a young boy.
His mother is clearly absolutely distraught and our thoughts and prayers go out to her and the extended family.
Now going back just a bit as the attack was first happening, I don't believe Rosie saw the actual attack take place, but she did notice a commotion when that eight-year-old boy ran to his dad to call 000. She saw Luke lying on the ground injured, so she too called for help.
She went into a state of panic as first responders arrived and as she watched Greg be shot by police, only to find that Luke was dead from his injuries. Of course, this was all just incredibly traumatizing and Rosie was in a state of shock.
Violence happens to everybody, no matter how nice your house is. intelligent you are.
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Chapter 5: What events transpired leading up to Luke's murder?
But at this point, that is all I have for today's case. Of course, this was a tragic, devastating case that absolutely should not have been allowed to happen the way that it did. It's always so freaking frustrating to see all of these missed opportunities. see how many times Greg just slipped through the cracks and was allowed to continue his terror.
And to know that he was so desperate to hurt Rosie that he decided to take his own son's life in public, it's just insane. Of course, my heart goes out to Luke, his friends, family, and everyone else who loved him and has been affected by this horrific death. But again, I'm so happy to see that Rosie is able to take this tragedy and do what she can to help others.