I remember as a six-year-old, the police were about to drive off because mum had reassured them that nothing was wrong and everything was fine and, you know, this happens sometimes, but he's a good man and, you know, he provides for his family.

And I remember saying, just looking up at mum and I remember tugging on her arm as a six-year-old and just saying, tell them, mum, just tell

them.

Our guest today is nursing educator Ashton Klein.

Ashton and his younger brother Grant grew up in a violent household in regional Victoria

until his mother found the means to

take them away. Months later, Ashton's father murdered his mother in a brutal arson attack.

At just 15, Ashton and Grant were left alone in the world, and ever since then, they've

managed Grant's complex health needs together.

Ashton joins us on Australian True Crime to talk about the loss of his mum and the effect it's had on every aspect of his life.

This is Australian True Crime.

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

the Wurundri Woi Warang people of the Koolin Nation.

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

I was overjoyed at the thought of having someone to mentor, someone to share life's experiences with,

and to just have someone by my side. It was an absolutely extraordinary gift that I was given

to have Grant come into my life. It wasn't always a gift because I'd gone from having all of the attention

on me to then having Grant who required a lot of attention as a result of some medical needs

and so forth. And so that did create some challenges, I guess, in our initial relationship

and obviously the demand from our parents and so forth

that being on Grant's illness and around, you know, him being in Melbourne at the Royal Children's

quite a lot, me being left at home quite a lot and so forth. So there were oftentimes where

...