Liam Ashley was a 17-year-old boy from New Zealand who had criminal charges pressed against him by his own parents for using their car without permission.

Liam had taken his mum’s car out for a ride without asking and so to teach him a lesson, his parents Ian and Lorraine Ashley pressed charges and asked that he spend a night in a prison cell.

Unfortunately, while being transported in the back of a prison van, Liam was beaten to death by George Baker – a high-risk offender who was being transported with Liam and another man to Auckland Central Remand Prison in August, 2006.

Almost a decade later, Liam’s parents said they had forgiven the man who took their boy’s life away. Speaking to One News at the time, Mr Ashley said:

“I had seven years of not sleeping at all. But then when I came to a realisation that George was slowly killing me, if I didn’t release him from me, I would never find happiness again.”

Liam’s mum echoed that sentiment:

“Forgiveness – it does bring you a certain amount of peace as well. We’re finding that our lives are changing. It’s harder forgiving yourself than actually forgiving somebody else. To forgive yourself from something as bad as making the huge mistake that we did.”

The couple now live in Australia after moving there in order to get a fresh start. They also say they feel sorry for their son’s murderer, who has gone on to reoffend a number of times over the years while behind bars. Mr Ashley said:

“I’m genuinely worried about George and where he is in life. Genuinely worried. I heard that he’s in 23-hour lockdown and still nine years later…that he has been suffering. I actually feel sorry for him.’’

So this all went down some time ago but it showed up on my timeline and I thought it was too insane not to share. How can the parents live with themselves knowing that they kickstarted the events that led to their son’s death, and then come out and announce that they’ve forgiven their son’s killer to boot? Couldn’t they have spared some of that forgiveness for their son after he stole their car, instead of sending him to jail for it?

I guess we don’t know what exactly their relationship with their son was like. Liam Ashley may have been completely out of control and his parents may have felt they had to do something drastic to teach him a valuable lesson, out of love and not malice. Still, it seems unbelievably harsh to press charges against your own teenage son for something that plenty of teenagers do.

I wonder what even happened in the back of that prison van to prompt George Baker to attack Liam Ashley. Was it completely random? Did Liam say something cheeky? I guess we’ll never know. Doesn’t seem very smart to put this lad in the back of a van with an unrestrained violent offender though. Lots of people to blame for this one, and lots of lessons hopefully learned.

For more parenting fails, meet the mum who threw her daughter on stage during an NMIXX K-Pop concert.