Killer shows no remorse
Guilty plea came after three days
THREE days into the murder trial, Brodie Isaac Preston changed his plea to guilty for the bludgeoning death of a defenceless four-year-old boy, Jason Schaepman.
He’d already admitted to the manslaughter of Jason’s little brother Riley Schaepman, just 18 months.
Preston was 19. Riley was
83cm tall, and weighed just
8.8kg.
He had bashed young Riley, stomped on him inside a Sharon Crt unit on July 28, 2007.
Jason had been with his mother out shopping and, when she got home about 1pm, saw her infant son asleep in his cot.
Two hours later, when he hadn’t woken, she took him to hospital where the little boy died of his extensive injuries including multiple bruises over his head and body, patterned bruising to his lower neck and chest – a pattern which matched a singlet pressed so severely it caused an imprint on his his body.
Forensic investigators determined the little boy had been on the floor and was stood on.
Riley also suffered a ruptured liver causing bleeding into his abdominal cavity.
He’d lost a lot a blood, but could have been saved had he been given medical treatment.
Instead, he was ignored by Preston.
But as Riley’s mother took him to hospital, Preston was again left at the unit with the older boy, Jason.
The four-year-old had dirtied his nappy and Preston scalded the boy’s legs when he put him in a too-hot bath.
Preston hit him in the head, leaving a chequered pattern from his watchband on either side of the child’s head.
Jason was punched, had a split lip, abrasions and bruising to his neck, upper back and a fractured wrist.
The most violent blow was to Jason, who like his little brother, had been stomped with such force it ruptured his liver and caused a tear in his heart.
Mercifully, he died within minutes of Preston’s rampage.
Preston initially pleaded not guilty to what he did to Jason, changing it three days into the murder trial.
It spared the jury, the family and the public of hearing what happened to the four-year-old boy.
Preston never changed his guilty plea of manslaughter in relation to Riley.
He showed no emotion when, in the Toowoomba Supreme Court, he was given life in prison for Jason’s murder, and eight years for Riley’s manslaughter.
For those in search of answers, Preston gave none, instead leaving it to painstaking forensic examination to determine what exactly transpired in the Sharon Crt home.
TWO HOURS LATER, WHEN HE HADN’T WOKEN, SHE TOOK HIM TO HOSPITAL WHERE THE LITTLE BOY DIED OF HIS EXTENSIVE INJURIES
Photo: Dave Noonan