Before we begin today's episode of Australian true crime, I want to tell you about a new project

we've been working on behind the scenes. It's called She Matters. It's a new podcast from

award-winning journalist and femicide researcher Shirel Moody. Each week, Shirel speaks with

families of women and children killed in Australia, sharing who they were, the joy they brought,

and the love they left behind. She Matters isn't a true crime podcast. It's about lives lived, lives loved and lives

lost. She Matters is produced by Dashmade podcasts in association with bravecasting media.

She Matters is available wherever you get your podcasts.

There are too many victims and not enough consequences.

It's why Victoria will introduce adult time for violent crime,

where the courts will treat children for these crimes like adults.

Music courts will treat children for these crimes like adults. In December 2024, Ben Mansfield, his wife and their two young sons,

were sleeping peacefully in their home in suburban Melbourne when two teenagers, armed with deadly deadly weapons broke in, walked around a bit

and then stole their car. Ben has since invested a lot of time and thought into our youth crime

epidemic. He joins us on Australian True Crime to talk about the home invasion and his

surprising thoughts on where to from here.

This is Australian true crime.

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created,

the Wurundri Woi Wurang people of the Koolan Nation.

And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.

So at the time, it was my wife and also my two children. We were here for, you know, a little bit.

We actually moved the family next to the in-laws that were living next door as well to be close. So we've been in the house for a couple of years. And, you know, we'd always heard about incidents around the area, but you never think that it's going to happen to you. No. And we should say the area. Can we talk about the area? I believe it's Armadale. Yeah, it's Armadale. So I'm in the Stonnington local government area that includes Armadale,

Tourak, Malvern, you know, quite, you know, expensive suburbs in terms of the sort of the demographic.

...