Ryan Bridge: Tom Phillips is no hero

It’s brutal, but Tom Phillips brought this whole thing on himself.

Yes, he was killed and that is a very hard and sad fact his kids are going to have to live with for their rest of their lives.  

Their father is dead.

But, he shot a cop - an innocent local Constable who was trying to do his job.

Tom Phillips also deprived his children of their mum, of any professional medical attention, of any formal education, for four years.

Ember was five when they were taken to the bush and hasn’t been to school since - she is now 9.

The kids were essentially used as helpers as their dad carried out bank robberies, burglaries, and break-ins. 

These are not the actions of a father who wants the best for his kids. Any parent who loves their children knows you don’t put them in harm's way.

Much will be made of the custody situation in the coming days, but the fact is we don’t know much detail about this. and likely never will. The full story won’t come out.

When he went bush the second time, Tom was in breach of a custody order.

But that’s about all we know because Family Court cases are wrapped up in suppression like Fort Knox in this country to protect the kids.  

Fair enough too.

But whatever happened in court, before court, no matter how unfair or unjust a case may be, if you take the law into your own hands, run away with your own kids, deprive them of an education and contact with society for four years, then the outcomes are yours to own. And yours alone. 

The outcomes here are bittersweet. 

A father is dead. A police Constable is in hospital lucky to be alive. 

And three children have survived, at least physically, a dangerous situation they should never have been out in in the first place.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's brutal, but Tom Phillips brought this whole thing on himself. Yes,
he was killed, and that is a very hard and
sad fact that his kids are going to have to
live with for the rest of their lives. Their dad
is dead, But he shot a cop, an innocent local
constable who was just trying to do his job. Tom
Phillips also deprived his children of their mum, of any

(00:22):
professional medical attention, of any formal education for four years.
Ember was five when they were taken. Bush hasn't been
to school since she's now nine. The kids were essentially
used as helpers as dad carried out bank robberies, burglaries, breakins.
These are not the actions of a father who wants

(00:43):
the best for his kid. Any parent who loves their
child knows you do not put them in harm's way.
Much will be made of the custody situation in the
coming days, but the fact is we don't know much
detail about this and likely never will. Well, the full
story won't come out. When he went Bush the second time,
Tom was in breach of a custody order. That's about

(01:05):
all we know because family court cases are wrapped up
in suppression. Like Fort Knox in this country to protect
the kids. But whatever happened before court, whatever happened in court,
no matter how unfair or unjust a case may be,
if you take the law into your own hands, run
away with your own kids, deprive them of an education,

(01:27):
in contact with society for four years, then the outcomes
are yours to own and yours alone. The outcomes are bittersweet.
In this case, a father is dead, a police constable
is in hospital, lucky to be alive, and three children
have survived, at least physically, a dangerous situation they should

(01:48):
never have been put in in the first place. For
more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
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