She was the picture of innocence. A nine-year-old schoolgirl with her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a smile that melted hearts.
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The photo of Ebony Simpson has been circulated so extensively over the years that strangers feel they know her.
That precious image is familiar for all the wrong reasons. And Ebony’s name will forever be linked to a depraved, remorseless monster.
The Bargo girl was walking home from her school bus on an August day in 1992 when a cowardly pedophile named Andrew Peter Garforth snatched her away. He raped her, bound her arms and legs and threw her into a dam.
Garforth got life for his crimes and Ebony's family hoped he would live a hell worse than the one he created for them.
But even 24 years later, the mere mention of the case – and the monster – evokes fury and anger from those who loved Ebony and strangers who were horrified by the brutal nature of her death.
Just last year, news that Garfoth’s status had been downgraded to “medium security’’ was like a knife to the heart to Ebony’s mum Christine.
“Few people understand the pain of losing a child especially not in the circumstances of how we lost Ebony,’’ Christine wrote in an appeal for public support to have the status change reversed.
“As a parent, you never get over it. The only solace we take is hoping that Andrew Garforth is living in a worse hell than the one he created for us.
“The thought that he can do courses or get a job is offensive to us as well as to the millions of Australians who expect more from our justice system.’’
More than 30,000 Australians agreed and the NSW Government announced the killer’s privileges had been revoked.
This week, the petition again circulated on Facebook and drew a flurry of fresh, furious comments. “We were gonna cut him up bit by bit while he was still alive,’’ said one man. “Every time I see this I go into a rage!!!!!’’
Another wrote: “Death for Him! Eye for an Eye! Because while that scum is alive there will be no closure for his family, The memory of it can't fade!’’
And this: “I remember this poor little girl like it was yesterday when it come on the news’’.
Ebony’s story is the real life version of every parent’s worst nightmare. Chrisine and her husband Peter had become public figures, fighting for the rights of victims.
"I was at a stage of my life when Ebony was murdered when I owned my farm, I owned my car, I had three children and life was pretty good," Mr Simpson told the Mercury in 2014.
Simpson was in the fifth and last year as president of the Homicide Victims' Support Group that he had founded with Grace and Garry Lynch, parents of Anita Cobby, the nurse abducted, raped and murdered by thugs in Blacktown in February, 1986.
The group was the first of its kind in Australia and was formed to campaign for victims' rights and support them in their grief and through a justice system that could appear uncaring.