Pilbara father who nearly drowned his own son in ocean avoids jail, claiming he was ‘baptising’ him

A Pilbara man who forced his five-year-old son under water in the ocean while in an alcohol and methamphetamine-induced psychosis — claiming he felt he had to “baptise” the child to protect him from “shadowy voices and figures” in his head — has avoided jail. The bizarre — and dangerous — actions of the man, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, on the Dampier foreshore in September 2023 prompted a heroic response from women in a fitness class. A sentencing hearing in the Karratha District Court was this week told that the father reached speeds of up to 160km/h in a 50km/h zone towards Dampier, driving through a picnic area and down stairs before reaching the beach at low tide. When the four-wheel-drive got bogged, the man ran towards the waterline with his son, sparking the attention of three women from a fitness class, who ran down onto the sand and chased him down. Before the women could reach him, the father knelt down near a shallow pool of water, pushed his son’s head into it, then ran further into the ocean as the women screamed at him to stop. Ignoring the women’s pleas, the father then put his son’s head into a headlock and fell backwards, submerging his head under the water for a short period of time. The brave women struggled with the father, trying to free the boy. In the process, the father punched and tried to bite two of the women. Eventually, the trio was able to free the boy and took him to safety before the police arrived. At the scene, the man told police that he was trying to “baptise” his child — later admitting to the author of a pre-sentence report that he had been using methamphetamine and drinking alcohol heavily in the lead-up to the offence. “You said that you did not try to harm your son. You felt you needed to baptise him to protect him from what you described as shadowy voices and figures and voices in your head,” Judge Michael Gething said. “You said that you had been hearing voices for a few days prior to the offending, threatening to harm your son and take him away.” Judge Gething said the ordeal was confronting and traumatic for all involved, particularly his son who could be heard on the car’s dash-cam screaming when he was first placed underwater. “He would have had no idea of your intentions, no idea if you were going to let him breathe again,” he said. For about five minutes, the three women witnessed the five-year-old struggling, his arms and legs thrashing about. “(One of the women) described the boy as having a frightened look on his face, though he was not crying or screaming ... (she) described genuinely fearing for this boy’s life,” Judge Gething said. The judge accepted the father — who was charged with attempted murder before he pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge of endangering the life, health or safety of the child — did not intend to drown or harm his son — and that his intention was instead to “baptise him”. However, he did accept that there was a “clear risk or potential” that the boy could have died from drowning or choking during the struggle. It was also accepted that the man’s mental state was due to his drug use and that he did not fit the criteria for a major mental illness such as schizophrenia. The court was told the boy was not injured and that the pair continue to have a close and loving relationship. Judge Gething considered that the father had made efforts to get into a residential rehabilitation program and the six months he had already spent behind bars during his time in custody. “I also accept that you never, in the past, tried to harm your son or anyone else. I also accept that you have a level of genuine remorse for your actions,” Judge Gething said. “The author of the pre-sentence report tells me that you spoke about your regret for your behaviour towards your son and the woman who intervened. “You said that you cared about your family deeply, and your son was everything to you.” He sentenced the man to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months with conditions including specialist counselling. “By the very thinnest of margins, I’m going to suspend your sentence,” Judge Gething said. “Had you not done any time in prison, I would have had no hesitation whatsoever in making you serve a term of immediate imprisonment. “But I accept the submission made on your behalf that having spent nearly six months in prison, the object of general deterrence, or the object of punishing you for the offending has been met and that I can now place slightly more weight on your rehabilitation.”