When the 55-year-old Daniel Hume took his last breath in a hospital bed at Cessnock, New South Wales, the world lost a convicted predator. But this wasn’t a win for his victims; instead, they lost a much-deserved closure.
Hume was serving a 30-year sentence for his disgusting crimes when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer earlier this year. But, in what appears as a cruel twist of mercy, Justice Health officials approved his application for voluntary assisted dying. With that, the man who had abused at least fourteen children, including his own daughter, managed to turn even his death into a violation.
The child predator died on Aug. 28, after just seven years behind bars. And none of his victims were informed of his death until his body had already turned blue. But the ordeal reached another level when it was revealed that one of Hume’s dying wishes was to have a photograph of his daughter, 27-year-old Neveah Jett, by his bedside, and it had been granted. Hume had abused Jett ever since she was two years old, and her image was placed at his dying bed without her knowledge or consent.
“It makes me feel sick to my stomach that he was allowed to look at me while he died,” she said. She also revealed that she only found out about her father’s death through the news. “I didn’t even know my dad was sick. He got to choose when his own jail sentence ended,” she fumed. “He should have lived out the rest of his natural life in prison.” (via Gold Coast Bulletin)
Her words echo what many survivors have felt. Granting a predator the right to choose his own death, and worse, to die comforted by the image of his victim, is an inversion of justice. “It sends a message that our trauma doesn’t matter,” Jett said. Insensitively, Justice Health NSW has defended its decision, saying that all patients, even those in custody, can access voluntary assisted dying under strict oversight.
But “strict” clearly meant something else to the officials who placed a victim’s photo by her abuser’s deathbed. Corrective Services Commissioner Gary McCahon admitted the breach and apologized, promising an investigation. “I’m deeply concerned the photos were not screened,” he said. But the statement did little to undo the damage. (via news.com.au)
The pain of Hume’s victims remains overlooked. Even in death, the predator found a way to exert power. He looked at the face of the girl he’d once terrorized, turning his last moment of life into one more act of psychological domination. Neveah has become a victim twice over. She’s a victim of her father and of the system that granted a criminal the kind of compassion he never deserved.
