Thursday 23 June 2022 07:32 AM Tamica Mullaley given apology after baby Charlie was raped and murdered but she ... trends now

The devastated grandfather of a baby boy who was kidnapped, raped and murdered has revealed how he begged police for help - but they arrested him and the child's mother instead.

Little Charlie Mullaley was snatched by his evil stepdad Mervyn Bell and endured a brutal 15-hour terror ordeal at the sick pervert's hands.

Bell was finally captured 800km away the next day - but the infant was dead after being sexually abused and battered mercilessly for hours.

The little boy's body had more than 100 separate injuries, including broken bones, third degree burns, internal bleeding and bruising.

But when the family tried to raise the alarm on the night he was abducted, police dismissed their fears and asked: 'How many cars do you think we've got?'

A triple-0 call made by distraught grandfather Ted Mullaley on the night revealed his chilling warning: 'Get someone to take me seriously - this guy is going to kill my grandson.'

But it was another nine hours before a proper manhunt was launched - by which time it was already too late to save Charlie. 

The boy's mother Tamica Mullaley had earlier been found naked, battered and bleeding in a street in Broome, Western Australia, after a fight with Bell over him cheating on her.

He had ambushed her on a street, ripped her clothes off, beaten her almost senseless and tried to run her and a friend over, then drove off before police arrived.

But police at the scene didn't treat the mother as a victim and the situation suddenly escalated when they tried to arrest her, despite her distressed condition.

Little Charlie was taken from her arms and passed to a relative of Bell's while police seized his mother, wrapped in a blood-drenched sheet, and threw her in the back of a paddy wagon.

Her father arrived at the scene but was also arrested, although he persuaded police to take his daughter to hospital and followed their vehicle to make sure they did.

But while they were at hospital, Bell returned to the scene and grabbed Charlie, before fleeing out of town with the infant and headed north towards Karratha.

The family pleaded with police to stop him, but they were told officers only had two vehicles - one was at hospital with the mother and the other was at the station doing paperwork.

Police also allegedly refused to trace the phone in Bell's possession to locate him because of the $800 cost involved, even when the grandfather offered to pay.

They then accused him of being drunk and stinking of booze despite being sober for 20 years.

In desperation, Mr Mullaley phoned triple-0 to beg for someone to help them - but the operator simply said she'd phone the local station sergeant.

A Crime and Corruption Commission investigation later found it took another nine hours before police finally acted. 

'No-one would help me,' Mr Mullaley told a recent SBS documentary on domestic violence, See What You've Made Me Do? 

'I was scared. But in my wildest dreams I never thought [Bell] would do what he did.'

Grandmother Julie Mullaley added: 'I've always believed in the police. I believe that the police are there to help you. 

'So I was very, very concerned when he said to me that they weren't doing anything and I just wasn't comprehending that they weren't helping him.

'But the next day they still had not found Mervyn Bell and the baby.'

When mum Tamica was told the child was with Bell, she ripped off her IV tubes and monitor leads and discharged herself from hospital to be with her family, despite a ruptured kidney and lacerated spleen.

'At lunchtime, these two detectives said, "We know where he is",' Mr Mullaley said.

'We've found him. He's walked into the Fortescue [River] Roadhouse.

'But the baby's [dead].'

In 2014, Bell was sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years for Charlie's murder and

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