Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The mother of a young girl who was knocked unconscious by a rock at a Palmerston party opens up about the ordeal

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The mother of a young girl who was knocked unconscious by a rock at a Palmerston party opens up about the ordeal · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we are going to be heading straight across actually
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: and catching up with Christine Cleary, who is the mother
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of this young girl, Kira, who was quite badly injured.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: As we've seen now, you may have indeed seen the.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Vision which emerged over the weekend of this shocking situation
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in Palmerston, a party turned violent after a gathering of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: around twenty friends descended into chaos when a large group
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: gate crashed with violence breaking out. Now we now know
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: that a talented young girl lays injured in hospital after
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: this rock was hurled, striking her in the skull, causing
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: extensive injuries. And then justin well actually joining me on
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the line right now is Kira's mum, Christine.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Christine.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Christine? Can you must,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, can you tell us how your daughter is going?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: At this point, she's.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Just been calling me asking me to come up to hospital.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: I'd say, we're up for another miserable morning. Um, yeah,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: so I'm going to get up there as quickly as
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I can. She doesn't like that hospital.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you no, Christine, I mean you you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: must have been devastated when you learned what had happened
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to your daughter over the weekend.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Oh, it just kind of unfolded, Katie. You know, I've
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: got a phone call at twelve thirty. Was at the
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: hospital at one she had a head lack. They took
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: her in for a CT scan, came out they said,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: we've called the neurosurgeon. I was like, okay, golly, this
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: is not very good. Then when he got there, it
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: was come up and or shady X rays and she
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: had a depressed gull fracture at the size of about
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: just bigger than a fifty cent piece.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Christine, what followed after that point?
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We had to wait until surgery at seven point thirty um,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And yeah, it was a long way, but you know,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: being at a party she'd had, they were worried about
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: her food intake because she was going under a general anesthetic.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: But can I say at this point, well, I have
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: the opportunity every member of staff at Worlds are in hospital,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: regardless the emergency department, I see higher tendency Ward three A.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: The staff have been absolutely phenomenal.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: That is really good to hear.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, Christine, I can't imagine how you must
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: be feeling right now. How you would have been feeling
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: on Saturday night with.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Your little She's alive. It's always a good point. It
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: wasn't her frontal lobe, it wasn't her real lobe. So
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: from the outset we knew that if it was going
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: to hit her brain, that that was probably the best place.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: And then when they did the surgery, it was about
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: working out whether the membrane around the brain had been compromised,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: and thankfully it hadn't. However, it wasn't just one piece
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: that was fractured, like, there are lots of pieces in
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: there that had to put together. As I said before,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: So she's got a few wires in her head now.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, Christine, Honestly, it's every parent's worst nightmare. You know,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: we try to cotton rule our children throughout their lives,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: but they get to a point where we can't. You know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: you're happy for them to go to a party. She's
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: gone to a party where you're expecting around twenty people.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: It then gets gate crashed and what unfolds is unbelievable.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, any parents worst nightmare.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Can you tell me from your perspective what actually happened,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you know, at that party on the weekend so.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: The party was, you know, between twenty and thirty people.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: It was quiet, they were all well behaved. Father then
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: said to his ex wife it's shutting down now, it's
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: you know, they're all going home. And it was at
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: that point that a gang of twenty or more people
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: turned up and tried to get in the gate, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: then there were people that tried to stop them getting
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: in the gate, and then it went from zero to
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: one hundred in a matter of minutes.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I've seen the vision, and you know, I've seen the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: moment where that rock gets hurled. I'm sure you have
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: as well, Christine, I have, I have.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: It's terribly confronting, but every bit of vision that comes
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: out of that incident is terribly confronting. You know, bj
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: being dragged along the grounds. Just the violence. I don't understand.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: I don't mean, what is wrong with these kids? Why
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: are they angry? Why are they looking to fight? I
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: don't I don't get it.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't get it either.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And you know, then when you see the the injury sustained,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: particularly for your little girl, it's you know, it is
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: it's just absolutely senseless.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, Yeah, So you know, why are they out?
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Why are they roaming the street? Why are they angry?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: You know, what are they looking for? They're they're they're
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: lashing out. You know, I've said this before, and I
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: know it's maybe going to sound stupid, but I actually
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: feel for that young man as well. It's it's just outrageous.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: He everybody in town knows my daughter, you know, they
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: all know everyone. It's going to be really difficult for
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: him to come back to town. And we've tried to we've
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: tried to smother the retoric of retribution, but it's some
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: there's got to be an intervention somehow with these kids.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: So by the sounds of it, you're worried now for
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the safety of this young bloke that's thrown the rock.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I'm jeff, I'm well, you know, he by all accounts
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: with the boarding school in Victoria, he was going into
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: draft year, was going into year twelve next year, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: then into draft. So now I understand, and this is
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: all he say that he's been asked to leave the
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: school and his future has been destroyed by this incident.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: It just goes to show like it just shows you how,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you know, how everybody's lives then are so negatively impacted.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: By this one.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Not Yeah, Kira's friends, her first coat, her closest, Nick grew,
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: they were all there. Yeah, they were all on the
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: ground with her unconscious. You know, they're blaming themselves for
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: being the you know it's yes, Kira and I are
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: going through a terrible, terrible time. But the repercussion and
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: the length you know that it stretches to that people
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: are affected is pretty phenomenal.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Christine, what is your message, you know, for if I, like,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know that they will be listening, But for
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: any of those young kids that were there, Kira's friends,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: but you know, any of them that were there, Like,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: what would you say to them if you haven't already
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: spoken to them?
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Make love not war?
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Oh you're so right? Hey, can you tell me? You
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: know what is what's the prognosis now for Kira? I
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: know that she's a really talented young sportswoman. I know
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: that she's a real firecracker by the sounds of it,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: she's a lovely kid. She's got the world at her feet.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: What's her prognosis?
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Well, at the moment, there's still a lot of confusion,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: and she's pretty funny when she's confused. She's really still
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: maintained her sense of humor, which is amazing. I don't know,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: slow and steady. She just has to heal, you know
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: that long long term she'll be fine. But it's a
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: major head injury. And you know they're talking about staggered
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: return to school and staggered work and you know she
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: can't drive and she can't play footy for twelve months
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: and so it's just we just have to make adjustments.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Now, Christine, what grade is she in at school? Is
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: she in year twelve?
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Year eleven?
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's gonna it'll be tough. I mean she's
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: she loves her footy as well, does she.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she loves the sisters.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the brothers of what a legend.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Well, can you pass on our love to Kira please
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and please let us know how she progresses, just very quickly.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Have you had any sort of update from the police
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: or you know, in terms of where to next with
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: with what's going on on the weekend?
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: No, No, they're still investigating. But you know, again going
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: back to my it's before this boy's seventeen, so they
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: can't charge him as an adult. There is talk of
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: him going onto the youth to Version program and if
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: you know, as far like you know, make love not war,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: don't send them to jail. If if this youth diversion
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: program works, I'll be all for it. But we have
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: to make sure that it's implemented and followed through and
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that they read the victim impact statements and they do
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: community service. You know, they have so I'm happy, you
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: know in that regard that he's not going to be
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: tried as an adult. But if the youth version program,
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: what's going to stop him from just going to do
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: it again. He's already angry. He threw a missile that
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: was intended to hurt someone. You know, I don't know
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: what do we do where? You know, I believe also
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: that a lot of the kids were part of a
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: footy club. And what culture of the footy clubs sending
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: out there? Why, you know, I just yeah, questions, Well.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: There's so many questions. Yeah, And there's so much that
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: needs to be worked on here. I mean, honestly, if
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like you spot on, we've got to like, I don't
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: know how we sought this out, but what's unfolded over
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the weekend shocking.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: We live in the best city in Australia. We live
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: in the best country in the world. We're so privileged.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: You know why, why, what's wrong? What's why are you angry?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Let's find out what can we do?
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Oh Christine, I really appreciate you talking to me this morning.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: You are an incredible woman, and you know, the strength
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: but also the love that you are demonstrating makes me
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: feel quite emotional.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Actually, so I.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate you having me. Yeah, I really appreciate you
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: having a chat with me. You're a good woman and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: so much love to your beautiful daughter.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you very much. Okay, thanks for your time.