Dear Sir,
My name is Wayne Holdsworth. I am the father of Mac Brennan Holdsworth, who was 16 years old when this heinous crime occurred. Mac committed suicide in October 2023 when he was 17 years old.
I saw Mac every day since the crime and it was obvious that Mac was never as secure, committed, or confident as he was before the crime.
Examples of his loss of confidence included not wanting to be a leader in his football clubs, but he was captain of his primary school and captain of a top-level football team before the crime against him occurred.
Mac stopped writing greeting cards when he told me in the car one day that he was worried the card might be shown to other people.
He said he was worried about posting photos because he was worried they could be used against him.
He would come home from work, stay in his room and only go out to dinner, you can say this is not unusual, but before the crime he would go out, laugh and watch sports on TV with me.
The night the crime occurred after the second request for more money, I spoke to the defendant who pleaded guilty and the defendant told me that he didn’t care at all about my son and that he was going to release the photos.
The messages from this germ said ‘your parents will hate you, you are a disgrace and you will want to die’. The shame my innocent victim son felt at having to face soccer practice the next night was humiliating.
Several factors contributed to his suicide and one of them was the sexual extortion of the accused, he has what is commonly known as blood on his hands.
The suicide rate has increased by 10% in New South Wales, it is the leading cause of death in New South Wales and I am now working with the Victorian Government to introduce similar legislation that South Australia has adopted and that New South Wales of the South is considering.
However, what good is all this if we do not try to eliminate some of the reasons why young people commit suicide?
I urge you, sir, to criminalize this heinous activity and implement the harshest possible penalty to discourage such harmful extortion behavior.
You, the accused, were involved in my son taking his life and his entire family, including his 15-year-old sister and brother, being forever heartbroken.
Can you imagine the pain and sadness I just felt when cleaning his room, discovering his entire life story?
Can you imagine the tears that ran down my cheeks while moving his bicycle that he used to ride in the rain, cold and frost to get to work at 7 am?
A decent guy trying to make an honest living making frames. It’s not like you work your illegal drug regime by sexually extorting innocent young people.
You deserve to be punished at the highest possible level, you have not sought my details to apologize, therefore despite the facade you may put up today, you are not fair nor are you truly sorry.
I am 100 percent sure that if you were offered $1,000 now to do the exact same thing with the same possible consequences, you would not think for a second and commit the crime.
You need to be taught a lesson.
The cycle of extortion to pay for his drug addiction must be stopped and prolonged incarceration is the only possible switch.
Thank my Lord.