Couple’s descent into hell
THEIR romance began in the railways and evolved to four beauiful children. Paul Weston and Alexandria Utting reveal how two people who loved and cared for each other for 17 years ended up dead in a Pimpama home this week
THE RAILWAY ROMANCE
DAVID and Teresa Bradford met on Sydney’s suburban rail network, and in the beginning he was a hero in their family.
A former freight train driver, he joined suburban rail in 1992, sometimes driving to Lithgow and the Blue Mountains, working all shifts. Teresa was employed as a guard.
The couple have four children – their youngest boy is in Year 3, their daughter in Year 7 and the two oldest boys at high school at Pimpama in Years 10 and 12. David’s oldest son from a previous relationship is 26.
Family photographs show the couple in superhero outfits, laughing as they pretend to flex their muscles, all smiles on a rollercoaster. Young children fall asleep on their dad’s shoulders.
He is commended by police after he spots a passenger being attacked on a platform and intervenes until they arrive to make the arrest.
A transit police officer, who knew him for eight years, says: “I’ve always found David to be honest, trustworthy and of impeccable character.”
HIGHWAY TO HELL
After sustaining a shoulder injury, David leaves the railways and works as a pest control technician. The hours are long, the work hot in confined places. His health worsens.
In May 2015 he has the first of six strokes. “It just came out of the blue,” his eldest son says. Teresa is the first to notice the symptoms and takes him to Sydney’s Westmead Hospital.
“Teresa is my rock,” David tells family members.
In August he, Teresa and the four youngest children move to the Coast. Accommodation is cheaper here. Teresa has relatives who can help.
After caring for David and looking after a son with cerebral palsy, Teresa is accepted for a nursing degree at Griffith University.
“People kept saying to me, “You should have been a nurse”, and I always said, “Nah, I’m not good enough”,” she later writes.
“After I had my kids I realised I needed to do something for me.”
David works with a stroke team at Robina and learns to walk with a cane. By March 2016 he is back at the Gold Coast University Hospital. Doctors discover he has spinal damage.
TRIGGER POINT
In September 2016, onlookers remark that “everything appears to be normal” at Matas Drive, Pimpama. By November, the mood blackens. “Dad became very depressed,” the eldest son says.
The couple have been living off their savings since May 2015. It takes David until November 2016 to get a disability pension.
Apart from financial stress, David and one of the children, who also needed support, appear to be “clashing”.
“The domestic situation reached a crescendo in November with David complain- ing about a lack of care. Teresa is asking for a divorce,” the eldest son says.
THE ASSAULT
On November 28, David is at home with Teresa when he receives a phone call about his medical condition.
Ten days earlier he had a “mental breakdown” in front of doctors at the hospital. A social worker speaks privately to him at the house.
Police documents reveal he is upset by the medical news and Teresa wanting a divorce.
He approaches Teresa in the lounge room, puts gaffer tape across her mouth, punches her until she blacks out.
When she gains conscious- ness, she attempts to call triple-0 but he grabs the phone. He has his forearm across her throat.
David returns from a bedroom with pieces of rope, a pocket knife and a box cutter. He intends to tie her up as police arrive at the house.
THE RESPONSE FROM POLICE AND THE COURTS
Police issue a Notice to Appear at Southport Magistrate’s Court for common assault.
On November 29, Teresa provides a statement and a day later when at the court for a domestic violence application, David is arrested.
The further charges are domestic violence strangulation and deprivation of liberty – considered precursors to homicide.
The police brief notes that David is taking medication for depression and that he has left several notes stating he “wished he died”.
Police note he is an unreasonable risk of causing selfharm or harm towards others and he should be remanded in custody. They do not ask for a psychiatric assessment.
“He was not arrested following the initial incident but checked himself into a mental health ward,” the eldest son says.
THE RELEASE FROM JAIL
David celebrates his birthday and several of his family alone inside prison.
“He was hoping to get bail before Christmas. He was very emotional while in there. They reduced some medication and removed others,” his eldest son says.
Just before the Christmas break, Legal Aid gets a lawyer and he and David speak for just 30 minutes before a bail hearing on January 12.
He has been in custody for 44 days. He has no criminal history and turned up for court first time.
Police have no independent witnesses to the incident and admissions only about the assault.
David is picked up by his eldest son and spends the night at hotel in the Brisbane CBD.
THE LAST CONTACTS BY AUTHORITIES
On the day after David’s release, a friend of Teresa’s contacts police and they issue a non-urgent referral to a domestic violence agency.
David visits Centrelink in Fortitude Valley, the Commonwealth Bank in the CBD to get a new account and finally a chemist store to check his blood pressure.
“As far as I’m concerned he made no calls to Teresa or the kids. I was with him the whole time,” the eldest son says.
They contact more than 40 welfare services without luck. The closest available accommodation is in Bundaberg.
Three days after the “incident”, the police contact the DV agency and Teresa tells a social worker that she is terrified but refuses emergency accommodation.
Meanwhile, David is living in East Brisbane and fa- ther and son, on January 16, visit his GP.
Should David go back to the hospital, they both ask. The GP does not think so.
THE FINAL TEXT
On Monday, father and son speak on the phone. “He wasn’t depressed, he was just sad that he couldn’t see any of the children,” his son says, having returned interstate.
David is planning to get legal help, to go to court to seek some access. “He was happy. He was on his proper meds,” his son says.
Texts are exchanged about the one-day cricket match between Australia and New Zealand, in which Marcus Stoinis stars. They discuss the sort of things father and sons should talk about.
About 9.30am the following day, shocked family members relay the news that just hours earlier David had entered the Pimpama home and stabbed Teresa before killing himself.
At Southport Courthouse yesterday, lawyers are saying “someone dropped the ball there”.
They defend the magistrate who could only work from the brief. Someone should have undertaken a mental health assessment.