John Ashfield

 

 

 

 

​

​

​Remembering John

John Ashfield was six years old. He was a first-grade student at East Nowra Primary School and lived with his mother and siblings in East Nowra, Australia. There is painfully little publicly preserved about John's personality, the things he enjoyed, or the ordinary moments of his childhood. Instead, John's name became known because of the extraordinary brutality inflicted upon him during the final hours of his life. But John was a little boy before he became the victim of a murder case. He was a son. He was a brother. He was a six year old child who should have been worrying about school, playing and growing up—not trying to survive the adults inside his own home.

​

John's Story

In August 1993, John's mother, Gunn-Britt Ashfield, became angry after hearing an allegation that six year old John had behaved inappropriately toward his three-year-old sister. Ashfield and her boyfriend, Austin Allan Hughes, decided John needed to be punished. What followed was not discipline. It was a prolonged and brutal assault.  John was beaten for hours while his siblings watched or listened. He was punched and struck repeatedly, including with an aluminum curtain rod.

John cried and begged for the beating to stop. The assault continued. Hughes humiliated John during the abuse, forcing him to wear one of his sister's dresses and mocking him as the little boy cried. Eventually, Hughes used a hammer. A telephone book was placed against John's head, and John was repeatedly struck in the head with the hammer. By the end of the assault, John was unconscious. His mother attempted to revive him by placing his unresponsive body beneath cold water and then hot water. Still, immediate medical help was not sought. Instead, the adults began constructing a false explanation for John's injuries. John's siblings were instructed to tell authorities that a gang of teenagers had  attacked him while he was walking through a park. Several hours passed before John was finally taken for medical treatment. The story could not explain what doctors found. John's small body was covered with more than 100 bruises in different stages of healing.

His hands were swollen and bruised. A doctor believed those injuries were consistent with John having tried to protect himself from the blows being inflicted upon him. John had also suffered a devastating brain injury and retinal hemorrhaging. He was cold and bleeding from his nostrils when he was transferred to Westmead Hospital in Sydney. Doctors could not save him. On August 6, 1993, John Ashfield died from the injuries inflicted upon him.

​

Justice for John

Gunn-Britt Ashfield and Austin Allan Hughes were arrested and charged with John's murder.

Both were ultimately convicted of murder. They were originally sentenced to 21 years in 

in prison. On appeal, their sentences were reduced to 19 years, with minimum terms of 14 years.

But neither remained imprisoned for the rest of their sentence. Austin Hughes became eligible for parole and was refused release in both 2007 and 2008. In December 2009, after approximately 16 years behind bars, the New South Wales Parole Authority granted Hughes parole.

John's sister Melissa, who had been only three years old when she witnessed her brother's murder, publicly opposed his release. Hughes was released from prison on December 28, 2009. Gunn-Britt Ashfield later changed her name to Angelic Kastrom. She also became eligible for parole. By 2011, after serving approximately 18 years of her 19-year sentence, authorities were considering releasing her under strict supervision and restrictions. John's sister Melissa again publicly opposed the release of the person responsible for her brother's death.

 

People convicted: Gunn-Britt Ashfield and Austin Allan Hughes
Relationship to John: Mother and mother's boyfriend
Conviction: Murder

Original sentences: 21 years imprisonment
Sentences after appeal: 19 years, with minimum terms of 14 years
Austin Hughes: Released on parole in 2009
Gunn-Britt Ashfield: Subsequently released from prison

​

Forever Remembered

John was six years old. The adults who were supposed to care for him decided that a six-year-old child deserved to be taught a lesson. For hours, John was beaten. He cried. He begged for it to stop.

He tried to protect himself with his small hands. And when he could no longer respond, the adults responsible for what had happened attempted to create a story blaming strangers rather than immediately getting him the medical help he desperately needed. John's siblings were left not only with the loss of their brother, but with memories no children should ever have been forced to carry.

Years later, John's sister Melissa was still speaking publicly about her brother and opposing the release of the people convicted of killing him. That matters. Because long after a criminal sentence ends, the consequences for the family left behind do not. John was more than the horrific final hours of his life. His name was John Ashfield.  He deserved safety inside his own home. He deserved adults who protected him. He deserved the opportunity to grow beyond first grade and become whoever he wanted to become. Abuse Angels remembers John, tells the truth about the brutality inflicted upon him, and preserves the name of the little boy behind a decades-old Australian murder case.