The case shocked Australia. A 2-year old boy murdered, but still no charges have been laid.

This two-year old was gagged and beaten by his babysitter, he lived for seven weeks with “cruelty amounting to torture” until he died. But news today that despite a coroner laying the blame for his death squarely on the shoulders of his babysitter and his mother no one will be charged.

Warning: this post contains distressing details of child abuse and may be upsetting for some readers. 

Daniel Thomas was last seen by his mother at 5.30am asleep in the brown brick housing commission place they shared with another family.

It was 2003 in a nondescript home in a town not yet known for the famous disappearance and murder of a two-year old boy.

The town Myrtleford is 273 kilometres north-east of Melbourne near the northern foothills of Mount Buffalo, it was springtime and the town was about to be scarred forever.

The last time he was seen alive was Wednesday October 15 2003. His mother caught the early bus to a TAFE course she was undertaking. She looked into his room, saw he was sleeping soundly and left, once again betraying the son she had brought into the world.

Once again leaving him alone knowing he was in the care of an abuser.

Just days later Daniel had been reported missing and the town was awash with search helicopters, squads of police, volunteers and the Australian media.

It was the beginning of a case that would have the whole of the country captivated.

Donna Thomas and Mandy Martyn

Donna Thomas and her son, Daniel had moved into the home with Mandy Martyn and her three children seven weeks prior.

Martyn’s version of events

Over the days following his disappearance, Mandy Martyn gave police at least three different versions of events.

In one of them she said that Daniel was left sleeping in his bedroom around 12.20pm while she took her other children to the doctor.

“He was asleep and I figured I would only be away an hour or two and he would be awake when I got back,” she said. “I figured he would be waking up just about the time we got back. He sleeps about two or three hours. Ten minutes before we left I checked on Daniel. He was asleep and I shut his door so he wouldn’t get out.”

She told police that she could not recall whether she locked the front door, but said it was unlocked when she returned home between 2pm and 2.30pm. Daniel’s window was also open.

She said an hour later he was “in the front yard chasing rabbits”.  But when she checked on him again, fifteen minutes later he was gone.

Fairfax Media wrote that she changed her account in a second statement saying when she returned home she had expected Daniel to be in his bedroom, but he wasn’t.

The search continued, the allegations ran hot.

But it wasn’t until March 2008, five years later, that Daniel’s body was found when dogs discovered bones buried beneath Ms Thomas’ former home.

Fingers continued to point at the main suspect in the now murder of Daniel.

“Cruelty that amounted to torture.”

A coroners report last year revealed a litany of abuse the little boy suffered in the seven weeks prior to his death.

Coroner Jacinta Heffey put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Daniel’s babysitter, and also his mother Donna Thomas who contributed to his death by her inaction.

She said that in the seven weeks he lived in that house Daniel suffered “cruelty that amounted to torture.”

Daniel was gagged, tied-up, slapped, shut in cupboards and called a dog, bastard and ‘‘c***.’’

He was forced at times, this two-year old boy, to stare at a spot in the lino and not move his eyes, or he was beaten.

Evidence uncovered by the Coroner included one example when a neighbour called Daniel a beautiful little boy. “Don’t be fooled” Martyn said “he’s a little c***.”

Other evidence showed that Mandy Martyn had deliberately given him food to which he was allergic in order to make him sick, and that she had hit him repeatedly, smashing his head against walls, beating him across the face. She would not even let the little boy eat in the same room as her and her children as she did not like looking at him eat.

The coroner said Ms Martyn was the principal abuser. She catalogued the sickening abuse, tying Daniel to a bed, gagging him with Chux, forcing him to lie spread-eagled on the floor, blindfolded and slapping him. He was also put in cold baths, and locked under the house for periods of time.

Coroner Jacinta Heffey told the Victorian Coroners Court, “His death was caused by Mandy Martyn, who inflicted the injuries that led to his death… Thomas contributed to his death by her inaction and her failure to protect her son.”

It was determined that before living with Mandy Martyn Daniel had not experienced such cruelty.

The coroner found that, “From September 2003, when his mother took him to live with Mrs Martyn until his death about seven weeks later Daniel was exposed to cruelty amounting to torture.”

Despite the fact that his mother had not inflicted the majority of the abuse herself, the coroner said that, “Notwithstanding this, she remained under the same roof as someone who systematically mistreated her own son and she was manifestly failed to protect or console him. She chose to do nothing and allowed the abuse to Daniel to continue.”

Seems cut and dried doesn’t it?

But it turns out it is not.

No charges to be laid

Despite these findings, despite this blame we now learn that no one will be charged with this murder of little Daniel.

 The Age reports that the homicide squad have been told they do not have enough evidence to charge anyone for his death.

According to reports the Office of Public Prosecution has advised detectives they do not have sufficient evidence to lay charges after a new brief was submitted in November.

“Victoria Police has received advice from the OPP regarding this matter today and they do not believe there is sufficient evidence to proceed further at this time,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said in a statement yesterday.

The Age writes that:

Detectives are bitterly disappointed, but privately say they do not want to press ahead with charges if there is a chance their case could be defeated in court in a state that operates under double jeopardy laws.

The investigation remains open.

Let’s hope that one day some type of full resolution and conclusion is made and that Daniel Thomas can rest in peace.

Anyone with information should phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.