Dec 2000 Volume 81 Number 12 "serving the protectors"
Two Families Shattered in Police Tragedy
By John Ballantyne

The tragedy of two young Melbourne police officers killed on duty last May still haunts SAPOL Corporate Services director, Chief Superintendent Peter Mildren.

On Saturday night, May 20, Victorian senior constables, Fiona Robinson and Mark Bateman, were on patrol together in a divisional van from Northcote police station, when they were summoned to investigate a reported hold-up at a bakery.

On their way to the scene, just as they were crossing an intersection at a not excessive speed, their van was clipped by another vehicle and partially overturned before colliding with an electricity pole. Their cabin was crushed. Despite the most strenuous efforts of the fire and ambulance services, neither Robinson nor Bateman survived.

Peter Mildren, representing the SAPOL commissioner and members, and Andy Dunn, representing PASA, attended both the officers’ funerals on May 25.

Mildren was especially struck by the tragedy and the futility of the accident. Both of the officers killed had been patrol partners for a considerable time, and they and their respective spouses had been close friends.

“Fiona and her husband Trevor were married in February this year,” says Mildren. “Mark and his wife could not attend the wedding because (his wife) Deb gave birth on the same day to Daisy, a sister to their two-year-old, Jack.”

All the staff at the Northcote police station were given a day off for the funerals.

An estimated 2,000 people gathered at the Victoria Police Academy chapel - previously part of a Catholic seminary - for Mark Bateman’s funeral. Addressing those present were Victorian chief commissioner, Neil Comrie; the police chaplain Rev Fr Jim Pilmer; another priest who had known Bateman for a long time; some of Bateman’s workmates; and Bateman’s grief-stricken father Philip, who thanked all those who had assisted and supported the family.

Two images especially stuck in Mildren’s mind. First, Bateman’s two-year-old son, Jack, “running and rolling around in the aisle blissfully oblivious of the huge change that had taken place in his life”; and, “above all else, the beautiful and so brave Deb Bateman who spoke publicly of the love they had shared.”

Not long afterwards, a similar-sized crowd of mourners - most of them from Bateman’s funeral - attended Fiona Robinson’s funeral. This was held in her own Catholic church in Greensborough - “the same church,” observed Mildren, “in which she had been married only three months before.”

Eulogies were delivered by friends and workmates and by Chief Commissioner Comrie. Particularly memorable, according to Mildren, was “the shattered Trevor, who bravely delivered his own eulogy for his lost wife.”

Outside each church venue after the funerals, the Victoria police formed a special guard of honour. Preceding the hearse and family on each occasion were mounted police, the Victoria Police Pipe Band, and a large contingent of Northcote police, who slow-marched in time to a bass drum.

Mildren recalls how he and other dignitaries “stood at attention, listening to the sound of the bagpipes diminishing in the distance until only the bass drum could be heard.”

“It took almost 30 minutes before we faintly heard the double beat of the drum to signify the halt of the marchers,” says Mildren. “I can only imagine the length of both of the guards of honour and the number of police involved - a most fitting and worthy tribute.”

Whenever he has reflected on that eventful day, there have been two thoughts uppermost in Mildren’s mind.

First, there was what he has called “the impressive public display of unity and professionalism on the part of the Victoria Police”, witnessed not just by family and friends but by “hundreds of bystanders who observed the gathering and then the guard of honour ceremony.”

“I would say that they would have been a little bit overawed by the absolute numbers of police that were visible,” he says.

Second, at Mark Bateman’s police academy funeral, “many of the 300 or so trainees there witnessed some aspect of the ceremony,” recalls Mildren.

“What an introduction to the culture and brotherhood of policing, and a reminder of the dangers present in the occupation they were entering! What images and thoughts went through their minds?”

Mildren himself is no stranger to the dangers of police work, having been confronted by people with weapons many times during his career.

But still he asks: why did the Victorian tragedy have to happen?

“One lunatic robbing a bakery,” he says. “Was it worth rushing to get there? What difference would a couple of minutes make? One lunatic got away with virtually nothing. Two precious lives gone. Two immediate families shattered. Two beautiful children won’t even know or remember Daddy. Two lots of parents devastated. All because of one low-life, who probably isn’t even aware of what he has caused and, if he does, probably jokes about it.”

The lesson? While policing is a worthwhile job, Mildren warns officers against taking unnecessary risks which will affect the lives of their families and workmates.

“Please don’t do it to them and please don’t put us through this experience again,” he pleads.

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