Phoebe, it’s impossible to control what people say. I know you won’t like it but you need to read this. Stephen.

A link was attached.

ALLEGED ARSONIST’S DEADLY PAST

Startling revelations about suspected Brunton arsonist.

Reports emerged today that the chief Brunton arson suspect was previously involved in a car accident that left a young boy crippled.

Sadie Riley reports.

The alleged Brunton arsonist has admitted he was at the wheel of an unregistered motor vehicle inflicting a serious spinal injury on an eight-year-old boy last year.

It is believed the alleged arsonist, then a seventeen-year-old Brunton youth, was on an unlicensed joyride. He was not injured in the accident. Records show he was taken to East Melbourne Hospital where he later faced questioning.

The mother of the eight-year-old victim is described by friends as a brave woman, dedicated to looking after her now-disabled son. Her task is all the more difficult because of living conditions in Brunton since the bushfires.

Neighbours question the police’s decision to release the alleged arsonist, who served no jail time for the earlier incident.

Neighbour, Mary Ross, fifty-six, said the alleged arsonist was a known trouble-maker. She said she saw his vehicle moving erratically before he ploughed into the child last year.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said Brunton’s increasing population of city people looking for a rural escape had filled the area with ‘juvenile delinquents’.

‘These streets were designed for a quieter time. People just don’t take enough care,’ he said. ‘But I never thought we’d have an arsonist here.’

At the time, The Melbourne Herald reported that Detective Hong Feng, from Brunton police station, said it was a ‘tragic incident’.

‘An eight-year-old boy playing in his front yard, watched over by his mum, was struck by a car and, as a result, he has been injured and taken to hospital,’ he said.

‘We understand he was chasing his favourite ball along the nature strip and the unregistered vehicle struck him when it reversed from the driveway in the hands of an inexperienced driver.’

Superintendent Thornton said yesterday he was unable to confirm that the suspected arsonist and the unlicensed driver are the same person.

He said that, last year, the driver underwent mandatory drugs and alcohol tests. He said police from Brunton Local Area Command had urged anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward.

Caleb was lying, stretched out on his bed beneath a fetid blanket. His eyelids flickered briefly open.

Sadie’s words portrayed him as a monster. A glass of water rested on the bedside table. A cockroach had drowned in it. I once read about a psychopath who kept souvenirs of his victims in his basement and was identifiable because he was so neat. No one could say Caleb was too neat. For a moment I contemplated throwing the water, cockroach and all, over his head. That would wake him up.