Love and fear: Grieving mother's heart laid bare at Luke Batty inquest

The first face appearing on the witness stand in the coronial inquest for Luke Batty was that of Luke himself. A framed photo of a young boy, smiling at something off camera. A casual moment of happiness. A reminder of who brought us here.

Rosie Batty sits at the front of the court, near her son's photo. Behind her are a large number of supporters, all wearing yellow, police, the media and the curious. 

We learned more about Greg Anderson, Luke's father and killer.

On that afternoon in February this year Anderson packed up all his worldly belongings into a backpack as he left his shared accommodation. He separated Luke from the other kids at cricket practice. But there was one witness to the brutality that would follow: a boy who had gone back to get his cricket bag.

Anderson had an intervention order strictly limiting his contact with Luke to public events. He also had 11 criminal charges and four warrants for his arrest. 

One of those charges related to child pornography. Rosie learned about this at court hearing. She thought “My god what else is there I don't know about this man?”

In her evidence, Rosie Batty speaks of love and fear. Her love for Luke, Luke's love for her, Luke's love for his father.  Love that led Luke to once tell a teacher he felt he was the only good thing in his father’s life. 

And fear, which crippled Rosie in the face of her violent former partner. “I was terrified to say no to him.” She is crying now, her voice carrying quiet terror. “It was hard to say no to him. Nobody understood that.”

In that extraordinary, heart breaking press conference the morning after Luke's death, when her funny, intelligent, sensitive, loving boy had been taken from her, Rosie looked like a woman who had always feared the worst and those fears had come true.

And today in the witness box, reliving the gut-wrenching details of her son's death, she is also fearless, just by being here. 

“He was everything,” she cried. “I never want anyone to be sitting where I'm sitting.”