On screen, guilty youths see life they destroyed

On screen, guilty youths see life they destroyed : "Lawyer Richard Backwell said yesterday that Harrell's parents separated after his birth and he and his mother endured years of domestic violence at the hands of his stepfather."

So who is guilty? Harrell? His stepfather? Us because we did not intervene and stop the hell for that little boy and his mother? When did he get into drug use? What treatment was he given in his 2 and a half years in a training centre. Training for what? To come out and do this to Mr. Macready-Bryan? We have two issues. The fact that a little boy lived and was allowed to live in circumstances where he was pushed to the limit and learned nothing about normal social behaviour. Doesn't take much to work out that he is really, really irrationally angry because he had to live with that stepfather, be the rescuer and see his mother endure pain and violent mistreatment. So put drugs and drinks into a time bomb like that and it will go off and now what must Mr. Macready-Bryan and his parents endure? We cannot allow people to do that to anyone and it's a bit late to show them after they've done such dreadful harm.Harrell probably watched himself doing what he had seen so many times before in his little life. We need to act before then and we need to be more brazen about not tolerating domestic violence and not allowing children to be a part of that. An adult has some chance of coming to terms with it and working it out when they have the help and support. An adult can walk out of it. The child is dependent and learns to cope but as they grow older the damage is not repaired , not easily repaired and sometimes never repaired. So we have to stop it. If we think it's going on we have to act. If someone is frightening us into not acting, then that's all the more reason to act...and we have to help those who have been part of that hell. Truth is, the stepfather too has probably got a horrendous story of his own to tell...but now Mr. Macready -Bryan and his family are drawn irrevocably into the total dysfunction of other people and our failure as a community to address it before it becomes too late.