On the night of March 30th 2006, Western Australian schoolboy, Patrick Waring was arrested and charged with a horrendous sex attack on a teenage girl.
Although completely innocent, Patrick and his family were about to pay an enormous price for justice. Patrick would spend a year of his childhood in prison while his parents, Terry and Marie, lost their house and life savings.
Every Family’s Nightmare follows the Waring family on an emotive journey to prove Patrick’s innocence.
With the help of a former leading British detective, Robin Napper, they are about to have their faith in the justice system shattered as they discover a frightening catalogue of mistakes, discrepancies and shortfalls.
Using compelling observational footage augmented with re-enactments and interviews, the film plots the key points in the Waring’s ordeal from the moment the rape allegations were first levelled against Patrick, to the outcome of his trial more than one year later.
With privileged access to the family and their legal team, this emotionally engaging and dramatic film will reveal a harrowing experience as it captures the twists and turns of the battle to clear Patrick’s name.
As this story unfolds, a sense of serious systemic, procedural and cultural problems surrounding the use of forensic science in police investigations will emerge.
While Patrick languishes in prison and his family struggle under immense emotional and financial pressures, Robin Napper teams up with one of the country’s leading lawyers to pick apart the case.
What they are about to uncover are major flaws in the police’s forensic investigation that stretch from poor management of the crime scene and shoddy detective work to cross contamination of crucial evidence and botched DNA testing.
But despite the discovery of glaring errors, the family’s nightmare only gets worse as the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions, who remain steadfastly convinced of Patrick’s guilt, press on with a criminal trial.
As their son faces up to 15 years behind bars, the Warings must endure a nail biting court case as they cling to the hope a jury will recognise the flaws in the case and set Patrick free.