The family of a five-year-old girl who was throttled to death and molested have been left horrified after finding out her killer is living unsupervised near schools and childcare centres.
Tim Kosowicz was 22 when he strangled Chloe Hoson and suffocated her with two shopping bags after she entered his caravan to play with a kitten in Lansvale Caravan Park, Sydney’s west, in 2003.
He then abused the five-year-old’s lifeless body, stuffed her in a duffle bag and dumped her in a nearby creek, but managed to avoid a conviction because he told psychiatrists that voices told him to kill and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
On Tuesday, the little girl’s uncle said that finding out his niece’s killer is living among young families in Carlingford, in Sydney’s north west, is like a ‘slap in the face’ to Chloe’s memory.
Kosowicz admitted he strangled Chloe (pictured) after she knocked over his bowl of cannabis
‘It’s got to be wrong. I mean, five schools, daycares in such close proximity,’ Peter Chalker told 7 News.
Kosowicz is living in a townhouse, within walking distance of Carlingford West Public, One School’s Global Sydney Campus in Oatlands, Carlingford West Kindergarten, The King’s School, and Cumberland High School.
He also lives a stone’s throw from a number of child care centres.
Mr Chalker added: ‘To me, as her uncle, I feel that it’s just a slap in the face to her. They’re not caring about the victims.’
Chloe Hoson’s uncle Peter Chalker said: ‘It’s got to be wrong. I mean, five schools, daycares in such close proximity’
Pictured: Tim Kosowicz walking among the community in Carlingford, in Sydney’s north-west, last week after being released from a psych hospital
Kosowicz is living in a townhouse in Carlingford in Sydney’s north-west, near schools and child care cenres
After local parents said they were horrified to learn the child killer lives near their families, the state government told the network that he could be shifted to a more secure location where his movements can be closely monitored.
Senior government sources said they are ‘less than pleased’ with his location so close to school children.
‘His privacy counts for nothing,’ One Nation NSW Leader Mark Latham said.
‘You kill a kid, you lose that. And notify the immediate neighbours – they have got the right to know.’
Chloe (pictured) was killed after she ran over to her Kosowicz’s caravan next door to play with his cat
Chloe (pictured) did not die immediately so Kosowicz covered her head in plastic bags and then interfered with her body before she was dumped into a creek
State authorities have also been inundated with requests by terrified Sydneysiders to change the laws so that when an offender does not get a conviction based on a mental illness verdict, community members can be told where they are and whether they are likely to reoffend.
Parents told the network on Monday they did not know Kosowicz was living so close to their loved ones, and were shocked when they found out.
‘It’s scary, that’s the first thing that came into my mind,’ one mother said.
Another said he has three daughters.
‘We should know, who (is) living here, if there is any [person like this] here we need to know it,’ he said.
The New South Wales Supreme Court found Kosowicz (pictured) was not guilty of murder due to mental illness
After avoiding a conviction, the killer spent 15 years at Morisset Hospital’s forensic psychiatry ward before he was quietly released into the community in 2019.
Hours before her death, Chloe’s mother was cleaning her caravan when her daughter came bounding inside.
After her mother told her to go outside to play, Chloe ran over to her Kosowicz’s caravan next door to play with his cat.
Kosowicz admitted he strangled Chloe after she knocked over his bowl of cannabis.
Chloe did not die immediately so Kosowicz covered her head in plastic bags and then interfered with her body before she was dumped into a creek.
Karina Beharrell (pictured) previously said she has thought of her daughter Chloe every day since her death in Sydney in 2003
‘She spilt my pot on the ground and then I lost the plot,’ he said.
‘Then I blacked out and next thing I was strangling her in my bedroom.’
The New South Wales Supreme Court found he was not guilty of murder due to mental illness.
Chloe’s father Michael Hoson said at the time: ‘Change the system for starters. Regardless of whether you’re sane, insane, whatever, you do the time.’
In April 2018, the detective who worked on the case revealed haunting CCTV footage of Kosowicz carrying Chloe’s body in a sports bag before dumping her by a creek.
The mother of five-year-old Chloe Hoson, Karina Beharrell (centre, with white top) being comforted by relatives, leaving Liverpool Court in 2003
Police investigators and forensic officers at the scene where the body of five-year-old girl Chloe Louise Hoson was found in 2003
‘She was inside the bag and he walked with her to the location where he dumped her body,’ Inspector Roger Best said.
Her mother Karina Beharrell said in 2018 that she thought about her daughter every day since the senseless killing.
Ms Beharrell has developed agoraphobia and could not leave her home, and previously slammed the state’s decision to allow Kosowicz back on the streets without serving a single day in jail.
‘I felt like justice left the minute that he was allowed to come out,’ she told 7News.
‘My heart’s been heavy for a long time, but it’s just gotten heavier since I knew.’
