A NSW health executive has described a father who committed suicide and his two-year-old son at home during a planned custody visit as a “wonderful colleague” and a “dear friend”.
James Harrison, 38, a health business analyst from New South Wales, and his young son, Rowan, were found dead inside a unit on College Street in East Lismore, on the far north coast of New Wales. South Sunday night after police were called to conduct a welfare check.
Employees at the NSW Health Clinical Excellence Commission received an email on Wednesday, three days after Harrison’s alleged murder-suicide.
The bodies of James Harrison, 38 (pictured) and his son Rowan were found inside the East Lismore unit.
CEC Director of Information Management Andre Jenkins sent an email to all staff Wednesday morning describing Harrison as a “wonderful colleague” and a “dear friend” despite the fact that the New South Wales police treated her death and that of her son as a murder-suicide.
The email, sent by CEC Director of Information Management Andre Jenkins after a morning staff meeting, described the “support services” available following Harrison’s death.
“It is with indescribable sadness that I find myself informing you that James Harrison and his son Rowan died on Sunday,” Jenkins wrote in the email obtained by The Telegraph.
‘There are no words to adequately describe the loss of a wonderful colleague and dear friend.
‘Many of you also shared and (had) memories of Rowan showing up at gatherings with his proud father.’
Staff criticized Mr Jenkins’ email as “tone-deaf” as it did not recognize that the deaths of Harrison and his son were being treated as a murder-suicide by New South Wales Police.
Lismore doctor Dr Sophie Roome with her son Rowan, who tragically died in a suspected murder-suicide on Sunday night.
Health Minister Ryan Park called the email “completely unacceptable” and said it caused “significant distress” to staff.
Park added that the email did not reflect the views of NSW Health and was not endorsed or authorized by the department.
Details emerged on Tuesday that Harrison had a history of domestic violence and the courts extended an arrested violence order (AVO) in March to protect the mother of his child, Dr Sophie Roome.
Police discovered Harrison and Rowan’s bodies after Dr Roome raised the alarm when her only child was not brought home in the afternoon as planned.
The intensive care specialist, who works as a doctor at the local hospital, went to police with initial fears that Harrison had fled town with Rowan.
An unanswered police knock on Harrison’s front door heightened fears.
Several hours later, the police returned and forced entry, where they found the tragic scene.
Police have since admitted that they left when no one answered the door to the home when they first attended at 5:30 p.m.
Local police admitted to Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that officers returned to their station to do “further investigations.”
It was another four hours after the alert was first given before they returned to the address under pressure from the boy’s distraught mother and her family.
Officers finally returned to the address more than four hours later, at 9:45 p.m., and discovered that Harrison had set up an elaborate “poison gas” system to kill him and little Rowan.
More to come…