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Arthur
FREEMAN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Revenge against her ex-wife during a
custody battle
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
January 29, 2009
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: 1972
Victim profile:
Darcey Freeman, 4
(her daughter)
Method of murder: By throwing her off bridge
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Status:
Sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 32
years on April 11, 2011
Arthur Freeman has been sentenced to life with
32 years non parole for throwing his daughter off a bridge
Aussiecriminals.com.au
April 11, 2011
THE man who threw his daughter off the West
Gate Bridge has been sentenced to life in prison.
Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan today
sentenced Arthur Phillip Freeman, 37, to life in jail with a
non-parole period of 32 years for the murder of four-year-old
daughter Darcey as he sought revenge against her mother during a
custody battle.
Darcey died hours after being thrown 80m from
the bridge by her father on January 29, 2009.
Freeman was found guilty of murdering Darcey by
a Supreme Court jury last month.
Today, Freeman showed no reaction throughout
the hearing, but had to be pulled from the courtroom by three
guards following a bizarre outburst after the sentence was handed
down.
Freeman backed into a corner of the dock to
avoid guards as he accused an in-law of being implicated in the
theft of diamonds from a West Australian mine and Federal Police
phone taps, while he also mentioned death threats to himself
during the rant.
During a 40-minute statement that had finished
moments earlier, Justice Coghlan said Freeman had not shown
remorse or even begun to understand the enormity of his brutal
crime.
“You are yet to say sorry for what you have
done,” he said.
“Your attitude to these matters remain
self-centred. I regard your prospects of rehabilitation as bleak.”
Prosecutors had called for Freeman to be jailed
for life without parole, while his lawyers had pleaded for a
minimum term.
In handing down the life sentence, the judge
said he understood the argument that he should be “locked away for
ever”, but he was obliged to consider other factors.
“Whatever happens, you will spend what many
consider will be the best years of your life in prison,” he said.
But he said he did not think Freeman was
“beyond redemption” and took into account good behaviour, family
support and references.
The judge also said, “One of the unfortunate
features of this case is that others blame themselves”, but the
judge said they should not.
“You are responsible for it. And nobody else,”
Justice Coghlan said.
“The earliest date you can be released is 29
January 2041, when you will be 67 years old,” the judge said.
Darcey’s mother and Freeman’s ex-wife Peta
Barnes showed no emotion at the sentencing, and left the court
with supporters without making a statement.
Several members of the jury that convicted
Freeman were also in court to hear the verdict.
Darcey’s death a fundamental breach of trust
Justice Coghlan, in handing down his sentence,
said Freeman’s actions were aggravated by an act breaching the
basic trust of father and child, and had destroyed the lives of
others.
“This was a killing of an innocent child,” he
said.
“The circumstances of the killing were
horrible.
“The throwing of your four-year-old daughter
from a bridge more than 80 metres above the ground could not be
more horrible.
“What Darcey’s last thoughts might have been
does not bear thinking about, and her death must have been a
painful and protracted one.”
He said Freeman’s actions were “a fundamental
breach of trust” and an attack on the institution of family.
He said the death was made worse because
Freeman had killed Darcey in the presence of his two young sons,
Ben, 6, and Jack, 2.
“It can only be concluded that you used your
daughter in an attempt to hurt your former wife as profoundly as
possible.”
And he said Freeman could not have chosen a
more public place for the murder act, saying it had offended the
sensibility of the entire community.
He said the lives of Darcey’s mother and many
others would “never be the same”.
In describing the impact on others, Justice
Coghlan said emergency services, witnesses and the community as a
whole had been affected by Darcey’s death, by having the events
“forced upon them”.
Freeman was not mentally ill
Justice Coghlan said Freeman’s defence largely
attempted to push for a non-parole period based on “impaired
mental function” which would have reduced his moral culpability.
But quoting Dr Lester Walton’s expert advice,
the judge said, “there is minimal evidence … that Freeman was
suffering from mental illness that he would have realised his
conduct was wrong”.
And while no-one knew what Freeman was thinking
at the time he threw Darcey from the bridge, Dr Walton said in
evidence: “I believe it is highly likely that Freeman may be have
suffering clinical depression at the time of the offence”.
Dr Walton also believed Freeman may need close
supervision because he was a suicide risk.
Justice Coghlan accepted that the sentence
would “weigh more heavily” on Freeman partly as a result of his
depression, but also the nature of Darcey’s death.
Judge describes moments before and after
Darcey’s death
According to the judge, Freeman had driven to
his parents’ house in the seaside hamlet of Aireys Inlet where his
three children had been staying.
The next morning, Freeman’s father Peter
noticed his son was distressed and appeared to be in a “trance”.
The day before he killed Darcey, Freeman had
the amount of custody time he had with his children reduced by a
court.
Justice Coghlan said Freeman’s act appeared to
have been triggered by his reaction to custody orders, and a
desire to seek “spousal revenge”.
While heading back to Melbourne, he had a
lengthy phone conversation with friend Elizabeth Lamb who was in
England at the time, telling her that he felt he had “lost” his
children.
Minutes before the murder, Freeman telephoned
Ms Barnes and told her to “Say goodbye to your children”.
He parked his four-wheel drive in the left-hand
emergency lane, near the West Gate Bridge’s highest point, coaxed
Darcey out of he car and picked her up.
Freeman then carried the child in his arms to
the edge of the bridge and threw her over the edge.
As Freeman drove away from the bridge after
murdering Darcey, his six-year-old son Ben urged him to turn back.
“Darcey can’t swim,” Ben told his father.
Freeman drove to the Commonwealth Law Courts
complex in the CBD and tried to hand his two-year-old son Jack to
security staff.
Freeman then became distressed and started
crying and shaking.
He was later arrested at the complex.
Sentenced to life, bridge
killer lets fly with bizarre courtroom rant
By Thomas Hunter - TheAge.com.au
April 11, 2011
A Melbourne father who murdered his daughter by
throwing her off the West Gate Bridge had to be forcibly removed
from the dock following a bizarre courtroom outburst just moments
after being handed a life sentence.
Arthur Phillip Freeman, who tossed
four-year-old Darcey Freeman 58 metres to her death two years ago,
will not be eligible for release until January 29, 2041 after
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Paul Coghlan set a non-parole
period of 32 years.
Freeman was last month found guilty by a jury.
He had stood motionless as he was being
sentenced while his former wife Peta Barnes also showed no
emotion.
Later, Freeman, 37, began ranting about a
Barnes family member’s involvement in the Argyle diamond mine in
Western Australia and had to be pulled from the dock by three
security staff.
In handing down his sentence, Justice Coghlan
said he had no doubt Freeman's behaviour at a family court hearing
- when he broke down and sobbed - "was a result of your realising
the enormity and awfulness of what you have done".
"[Darcey's] last thoughts bear not thinking
about. Her death must have been painful," he said.
"[The] killing [was done] in the presence of
your sons Ben, who was six, and son Jack, who was two at the time.
The community hopes he will be too young to remember.
"You used your daughter to hurt your former
wife as profoundly as possible. You chose a place remarkably
public and would have the most dramatic impact."
Justice Coghlan said he was not satisfied
Freeman's behaviour showed remorse, that he was self-centred and
was "yet to say sorry for what you had done".
He said he was satisfied Freeman continued to
lack insight into what he had done and described his prospects for
rehabilitation as "bleak".
"I understand that many will say that your
crime is so serious in so many respects that I should not impose a
non-parole period. That is, you deserve to be locked away for
ever. I see the attractiveness of that argument, but the
sentencing process is not as simple as that."
Justice Coghlan said he took into account
Freeman's age.
"Whatever happens, you will spend what will be
regarded by many as the best years of your life in prison. I have
come to the conclusion it is appropriate to fix a non-parole
period.
"I do not regard you a being beyond redemption.
You are only 37 years of age. I've had regard to your mental
illness and ... I have taken it into account in deciding both
whether I should fix a non-parole period and deciding what that
non-parole period should be."
He said Freeman's previous good behaviour, his
character references and the support he had from his family were
taken into account.
But he said one of the very unfortunate
features of the case was that others seemed to "blame themselves
for what you have done".
"They should not. You did what you did. You are
responsible for it, and nobody else is."
Minutes before the murder, Freeman phoned Ms
Barnes and told her to "Say goodbye to your children".
He parked his four-wheel-drive in the left-hand
emergency lane of the bridge, coaxed Darcey out of the car and
picked her up.
Freeman then carried the child in his arms to
the edge of the bridge and threw her over the edge.
During his three-week trial Freeman did not
deny killing Darcey, but his barrister argued Freeman was "mad not
bad" when he threw her from the bridge.
He pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental
impairment but a jury last month found him guilty of murder.
Neither Freeman’s parents, nor the Barnes
family, commented as they left the court.
Jury finds Arthur Freeman guilty of
murdering daughter by throwing her off bridge
By Stuart Rintoul - The Australian
March 29, 2011
AFTER five days, a jury of seven
women and five men last night found Arthur Freeman guilty of
murdering his four-year-old daughter, Darcey, when he threw her
from the top of Melbourne's West Gate Bridge.
Freeman stood impassively as the verdict was
delivered just before 8pm, his hands folded in front of him. His
former wife, Peta Barnes, also showed no emotion. Both left the
court without a word.
After the verdict, Supreme Court judge Paul
Coghlan excused the jurors from having to serve on another jury
for 10 years, at which point four women jurors burst into tears.
Earlier yesterday, Justice Coghlan gave the
jury final directions after allowing seven jurors to asks
questions. He told them that, to find Freeman not guilty, they
needed to accept that on the balance of probabilities he did not
know the "nature and quality" of his conduct, or know it was wrong
when he threw his daughter to her death.
But he told them they should not "reason
backwards" that Freeman must have been mentally impaired because
no sane person would do what he did.
Freeman's barrister, David Brustman SC, had
argued Freeman was mentally impaired at the time he killed his
daughter; prosecutor Gavin Silbert said it was a case of "spousal
revenge" by a man who feared he was about to lose joint custody of
his children.
In his closing statement, Mr Brustman told the
jury: "In the dock sits a man who flung a four-year-old girl, his
own daughter, to her death.
"It is the easiest thing in the world simply to
say that these events are nothing more than an evil man punishing
his estranged wife in the worst possible way he could, by taking
from her the most important thing in her life, which of course is
her child.
"Doesn't his act, don't all his actions, scream
at us madness? What we say to you is, his impaired mind caused him
to do this."
The facts of the case were not in dispute. At
about 9.15am on January 29, 2009, while driving back to Melbourne
from his parents' Airey's Inlet home with his three children, Ben,
6, Darcey, 4, and Jack, 2, Freeman, 37, stopped his car on the
West Gate Bridge, put his hazard lights on, walked calmly to the
railing and tossed Darcey over the edge. She fell 58m to her
death. It was to have been her first day of school.
The court heard Freeman and his former wife,
who divorced in June 2008, were locked in a custody battle over
the children and Freeman felt he was going to lose joint custody.
Ms Barnes told the court that on the day Darcey
was killed, she had gone to the school and became concerned when
the girl did not arrive. She phoned Freeman. "His response was,
'Say goodbye to your children'," she said.
Freeman entered a not guilty plea to Darcey's
murder, based on a defence of mental impairment. But Mr Silbert
argued Freeman was not mad and urged the jury to put out of their
minds the idea that only madness could have made a father do what
he did.
Key to the defence case was the evidence of
psychiatrist Graham Burrows, who told the court Freeman was
suffering from a "major depressive disorder" and was "very
probably" in a dissociative state, like that of a sleep walker, at
the time he killed his daughter.
He said Freeman did not recall dropping Darcey
to her death: "He still doesn't believe it occurred. He still
doesn't believe he could have done it. But . . . people have told
him he's done it, so he accepts that."
In cross-examination, Mr Silbert SC said
Professor Burrows, who has had a distinguished career, was "the
psychiatrist of last resort", the only one of six psychiatrists to
have examined Freeman who thought he was so deeply depressed, so
mentally impaired, that he did not know what he was doing when he
flung his daughter from the bridge.
Yvonne Skinner, a psychiatrist in more than 80
cases of people killing their children, told the court Freeman's
actions indicated he was acting "consciously and voluntarily".
Forensic psychiatrist Douglas Bell testified
"all of the observations of witnesses regarding his behaviour on
the morning of Darcey's death suggest he knew the nature . . . of
his conduct". He said Freeman would not have been able to complete
tasks as complex as lifting Darcey over the railing of the bridge
had he been in a "dissociated" mental state.
"Mr Freeman parks his car in the far left
emergency lane, puts his hazard lights on, opens the door of his
car, reaches in, pulls Darcey from her seat," he said.
"He . . . walks her to the bridge, then lifts
her above the high side rail and throws her over. He then returns
to the car, starts it, drives off into traffic. This is a complex
. . . sequence of goal-directed behaviours not compatible with a
state of mind in which behaviour is not conscious or voluntary."
Witnesses recalled their shock at seeing
Freeman throw the little girl from the bridge. Barry Nelson, who
was driving to work with his wife, said he saw the child's hair
and limbs flying. He said Freeman appeared to show no sign of
aggression or emotion. "He may have been posting a letter," he
said.
But Dr Bell said Freeman's behaviour at the
Commonwealth Law Courts, where he handed himself in to security
guards and where he was captured on CCTV footage trembling and
crying, indicated he was "catastrophically overwhelmed by the
enormity of what he has done".
In a devastating taped interview played to the
jury, Ben Freeman, who was six years old, said he and Darcey and
Jackson were playing games in the back of the car before they
stopped on the bridge and his father asked his sister to get in
the front seat.
He said his father carried Darcey against his
shoulder before throwing her over the side. He remembered he
didn't hear her scream as she went down.
"My Dad went out with Darce and then he threw
her over the bridge," he said. "I didn't hear her scream on the
way when she . . . nothing, nothing, nothing."
After his father returned to the car and drove
away, the boy pleaded with him to go back. "I said go back and get
her," he said. "And Dad keeps driving along. Then I said Darcey
can't swim . . . and then Dad would just keep on driving, didn't
go back to get her. I kept on saying it over and over again and he
never did it."
Freeman had always seemed normal
By Andrea Petrie - TheAge.com.au
March 29, 2011
ARTHUR Phillip Freeman is a man of distinctive
appearance. His long, unkempt hair sprouting from around his
balding crown frames a face that appears etched in permanent
puzzlement.
If not for the suit and tie he has worn to
court every day over the past two weeks, he could be mistaken for
a homeless person. Chief Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert, SC, said
he had the ''Rasputin-like appearance of a mad monk''.
But, as family photos attest, Freeman did not
always look like this. Nothing about his appearance suggested he
was anything other than a normal man leading an unremarkable life.
And right up until the moment he threw his
four-year-old daughter Darcey off the West Gate Bridge, that's
exactly who he was.
Freeman studied computer science at Deakin
University in the 1990s before he landed an IT job at RMIT's
aeronautics campus at Fishermans Bend.
He loved cars and autocross, and along with a
group of friends, kept himself busy buying Ford Escorts and
preparing them for racing.
In 1998, he met Peta Barnes, a human resources
rep who was working her way up the corporate ladder.
They quickly moved in together, to a place in
north Richmond, and on December 31, 1999, they married. A family
member recalls that many thought the wedding date was ironic - a
computer nerd getting married on millennium New Year's Eve when it
was foretold the world would fall apart due to the Y2K bug.
Freeman and Barnes's world did fall apart ,but
that trauma, followed by unfathomable tragedy, was still years
away.
On January 17, 2000, Freeman and Ms Barnes
moved to London, where he got a well-paid job in IT.
Their first child, Benjamin Eric, was born on
February 1, 2002, followed by Darcey Iris on February 11, 2004,
and Jonathan Jackson William on February 24, 2006.
On June 24, 2006, just weeks before Freeman was
due to get his permanent residency in Britain, they moved back to
Australia.
Freeman struggled to get a job and suffered
regular mood swings. The marriage came under increasing strain,
and ultimately fell apart on March 23, 2007.
Freeman and Ms Barnes shared custody of their
children - three days on, three days off.
But when Freeman announced he was returning to
Britain to get his permanent residency following their divorce in
June 2008, Ms Barnes sought to alter the custody arrangements
formally through the courts.
This enraged Freeman, who returned home in
December 2008 and sought legal advice.
A hearing was set at the Federal Magistrates
Court for January 27-28, 2009, but first the family had to meet
with a psychologist, who was to interview everyone involved to
determine what was best for the children.
Freeman met the psychologist on December 12. He
was late to the meeting and to a subsequent meeting. He kept
interrupting when other family members were being interviewed.
''It caused the children to be … more
distressed than they needed to be,'' the psychologist later said.
The psychologist recommended that the children
reside with their mother and spend time with their father on
alternate weekends.
The report stated Freeman had ''chronic
personality and interpersonal problems that are caused by a
tendency to irrationality, contradiction and denial of
responsibility''.
Despite this, the psychologist noted that
Freeman appeared to have a warm and loving relationship with all
his children.
Ms Barnes later told police that ''Arthur
appeared happy when I left the court''.
To friends he expressed anger, disappointment and frustration
at the outcome.
Ms Barnes phoned him later that night - January 28 - to speak
to the children. He said he would get them to call her the
following morning on their way to Darcey's first day of school.
Ms Barnes never had the chance to speak to her daughter again.
During the trial, Ms Barnes glanced at the man responsible for
destroying her world.
''The whole time I knew him he was always clean-shaven and
professional in his dress, so his hair was short, professionally
cut,'' she told the jury.
The man in the dock barely resembled him.
Arthur Freeman jury urged to
reject evidence of sole defence witness
By Paul Anderson - Herald Sun
March 22, 2011
THE evidence of the sole defence
witness in the murder trial of Arthur Freeman should be rejected
because he was contradictory and determined to justify his own
expert opinions, a jury has been told.
In his closing address, chief
Crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert, SC, today said Mr Freeman's not
guilty plea to murdering his daughter Darcey Freeman on the
grounds of mental impairment rested on the evidence of Professor
Graham Burrows.
Prof Burrows had told the Supreme Court trial
that Mr Freeman suffered a “major depressive disorder” and was in
a “dissociative state” - like that of a sleepwalker - when he
threw Darcey, 4, off the West Gate Bridge on January 29, 2009.
“This case is essentially about Prof Burrows
and his evidence,” Mr Silbert said.
“At the end of the day you should reject Prof
Burrows entirely."
The jury has heard Prof Burrows was the only
one of six psychiatrists who assessed Mr Freeman to back his
mental impairment defence.
Mr Silbert today said Mr Freeman was mildly to
moderately depressed due to his “situation in life” after a court
custody decision, and that his anger management problems bubbled
over.
Defence counsel David Brustman, QC, will begin
his closing address this afternoon.
Darcey's bridge death was 'spousal revenge'
By Andrea Petrie - TheAge.com.au
March 18, 2011
There is no evidence to suggest that a man who
threw his four-year-old daughter off the West Gate Bridge was
mentally impaired to a point where he was unable to distinguish
between right and wrong, a court has heard.
Experienced clinical psychiatrist Dr Yvonne
Skinner, called by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness in Arthur
Phillip Freeman’s Supreme Court murder trial, testified today
that she believed Freeman was acting consciously and voluntarily
when he threw his daughter Darcey 58 metres to her death.
Freeman, 37, of Hawthorn, has pleaded not
guilty to murdering Darcey on January 29, 2009.
Dr Skinner told the court she assessed Freeman
over several hours on November 22 last year and did not believe he
was psychotic on the day of her death.
When asked if she believed Freeman’s actions
were consistent with ‘‘spousal revenge’’ or ‘‘filicide’’ (killing
a child to get back at a spouse), Dr Skinner answered ‘‘yes.’’
She said this was apparent by the fact that
Freeman had got his children ready that morning, loaded up the
car, made several phone calls on his way to Melbourne, spoke to
his children on the way, received phone calls from his wife during
which he made threats against the children’s lives.
He had also parked the car on the bridge, put
his car’s hazard lights on, asked his daughter to climb into the
front of the vehicle, got out of the car, picked her up and tossed
her over the railing, she said. Then he got back into his car and
continued driving, stopped further up the road so his son Ben
could get in the front seat, parked his car at the Commonwealth
Law Courts and went inside where he was ultimately arrested.
Freeman’s actions that day were ‘‘well
organised and purposeful’’, Dr Skinner said.
‘‘There is no evidence that he had a mental
illness or automatism and that he did not know what he was doing
was wrong.’’
She agreed with defence witness, Professor
Graham Burrows, who testified yesterday that Freeman was likely to
have been suffering depression at the time of his daughter’s death
and was under a lot of stress following a two-day court hearing to
determine the financial settlement with his ex-wife and custody
arrangements surrounding their three children. But she said she
disagreed with the professor on the severity of his depression.
She also agreed that Freeman might have been in
a ‘‘dissociated’’ state when he tossed Darcey off the bridge,
explaining that dissociation was a ‘‘transient state’’ so could
have lasted for minutes or probably longer.
The court heard that Freeman told one of six
psychiatrists who assessed him following the event, that his
daughter was headstrong and unmanageable, needed firm handling and
also craved attention.
The trial, before Justice Paul Coghlan,
continues.
Court shown CCTV footage of
Arthur Freeman minutes after throwing daughter off bridge
By daniel Fogarty - News.com.au
March 10, 2011
Arthur Freeman, who had minutes earlier thrown
his daughter off Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, stood shaking,
staring out the window of the Commonwealth Law Courts building.
Tears ran down his face and mucus came out his
nose, but he did not wipe it away.
Court staff also tried to speak to Mr Freeman,
but he did not respond.
He simply stood there staring, shaking and
sobbing.
CCTV footage of Mr Freeman's time in the court
foyer was played to the jury today in his Victorian Supreme Court
trial for the murder of his four-year-old daughter Darcey.
In the footage, Freeman's six-year-old son Ben
sits beside him in what appears to be a school uniform.
His two-year-old son Jack is wearing only a
nappy and for much of the footage is hidden behind Mr Freeman's
leg.
At times the boys tug at Mr Freeman's arms and
put their hands around his waist, but he continues to stare.
They walk away and Mr Freeman does not stop
them.
Mr Freeman, who had been in a custody battle
with his wife, threw his daughter off the West Gate Bridge and
then drove to the courthouse.
Security staff first noticed him when he came
up to them at a screening point and tried to hand over his
two-year-old son.
Mr Freeman was told to keep the child and walk
through an X-ray machine.
It was a Thursday - "divorce day" - and Mr
Freeman was holding up a long line of people.
He was asked if he was OK and he began crying.
The CCTV footage shows him crying for about
half an hour.
Ilana Katz, a psychologist at the court, was
among those who tried to talk to Mr Freeman.
She noticed he was significantly distressed and
that he appeared to be in a "frozen state".
Another counsellor at the court Christine
Bendall also spoke to him.
"He didn't appear to have the ability to wipe
his nose,'' she told the jury.
The footage later shows Mr Freeman being taken
from the court by police.
Clinical forensic registrar Justin du Plessis
was called to the St Kilda Rd police complex to decide whether Mr
Freeman was fit to be interviewed by police.
He was "extremely concerned" about Mr Freeman's
mental state and wrote he was "clearly not fit for interview" in
his notes.
"He was hunched over in the chair," Dr du
Plessis told the jury.
"He was crying. He wasn't speaking to me. He
wasn't replying, responding to any of my questions. Not even once,
there wasn't a single verbal response. And he was shaking or
trembling."
He found Mr Freeman had acute psychiatric
distress.
Later asked by Chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin
Silbert if the distress could have been from "falling apart as a
result of having thrown his child over the bridge", Dr du Plessis
said that was a possibility.
Mr Freeman, 37, of Hawthorn, has pleaded not
guilty to murder and will argue mental impairment.
The trial before Justice Paul Coghlan is
continuing.
Arthur Freeman charged with murder of
daughter in West Gate Bridge horror
Man throws daughter over bridge, killing her
News.com.au
January 29, 2009
A MAN charged with the murder of his daughter,
whom he allegedly threw off Melbourne's West Gate Bridge, did not
appear in court today because he was deemed suicidal.
Arthur Freeman, 36, was expected to appear in
the Melbourne Magistrate's Court for a filing hearing, but the
court heard he was unfit to be interviewed by police.
Mr Freeman was in an acute psychiatric state
and there were concerns he may harm himself, the court heard.
Mr Freeman was arrested outside the Federal
Court in Melbourne about 10.30am (AEDT).
A Royal Children's Hospital spokeswoman said Mr
Freeman's daughter, named Darcy, died at 1.35pm.
Darcy was pulled from the water by police at
about 9.30am after allegedly being thrown 58m from the bridge at
9.10am.
Mr Freeman was arrested after security staff
noticed him standing in the foyer with his two sons, aged seven
and 23 months.
Police were called and several officers
arrested Mr Freeman, who offered no resistance.
Just before he was taken away, he asked
security guards to look after his children.
t the time of his arrest, police had no
indication Mr Freeman was connected to the West Gate Bridge
incident.
Paramedic team manager Trevor Weston said
paramedics worked on Darcy for almost an hour.
"Paramedics worked for about 50 minutes at the
scene and the child was then conveyed to the Royal Children's
Hospital," Mr Weston said.
She was airlifted to the Royal Children's
Hospital in a critical condition with massive internal injuries.
Homicide squad Det-Insp Steve Clark said Mr
Freeman's sons may have been in the car with him on the bridge.
He said the girl's mother, Peta Freeman, had
been informed and was with police.
"She's currently assisting police the best she
can in terrible, terrible circumstances," he said.
Det-Insp Clark said a number of witnesses had
already come forward and were being interviewed by police.
Bridge security
Victorian Premier John Brumby said it was too
early to think about extra security measures on the West Gate
Bridge following the girl's death.
"To be honest people probably aren't thinking
about those things. They're just thinking, they're feeling for the
family and how this could have occurred," he said.
"I think every Victorian, you just shudder, you
just think how could that happen and it's just such a terrible
thing.
"All Victorians' hearts would go out to the
family, to the child ... we just hope and pray."
