‘I’m relieved, but I’ve lost my son and that’s hard,’ Ms Jovanovska told the Daily Mail through the screen door of her Yagoona home on Friday.

‘I just got a call from the lawyer saying that the charge has been dropped. I don’t know why they dropped the charge. I wasn’t told. That’s it.’

Withdrawing the charge ends the long-running legal pursuit of a mother who had struggled to bring up a ‘big boy’ who was bullied at school and whose severe autism led to involuntary violence.

‘I don’t know what really happened at school,’ Ms Jovanovska said. ‘It was just… I don’t know. It was hard.

‘We went through hell in here for years, both him and me. I think about it every day, but there’s nothing I can do about it.’

+7
View gallery

Keti ‘Kathy’ Jovanovska, who was accused of feeding her autistic son only bread and soft drink before he allegedly starved to death, has expressed her relief at being cleared of killing the teenager

+7
View gallery

Ms Jovanovska was charged with domestic violence-related manslaughter in September 2022, after her 18-year-old son Joshua Djuric was found dead inside the family home

Joshua’s body was reportedly in an emaciated state on September 26, 2022 when police attended the four-bedroom brick home he shared with his mother.

That night, Ms Jovanovska had sought help from neighbours who called emergency services after she found Joshua unconscious about 10.30pm. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ms Jovanovska was questioned at Bankstown Police Station before being taken to hospital for assessment. She was charged with manslaughter the next morning and faced Bankstown Local Court on September 28.

Joshua had died between 6pm and 10:40pm – when Triple Zero was called, according to court documents tendered in Ms Jovanovska’s bail application.

Police alleged Ms Jovanovska, who had been raising her son alone, failed to provide him with food, medical care or medicine while his health was deteriorating.

Ms Jovanovska, who had not entered a plea to the manslaughter charge, was preparing to face a District Court trial when the Director of Public Prosecutions abandoned the case.

The 56-year-old was not in court on May 7 when the DPP informed Deputy Chief Judge Stephen Hanley the charge was being withdrawn and there would be no further proceedings.

A DPP spokeswoman told the Daily Mail decisions about whether or not to take a case to trial were made in accordance with its prosecution guidelines.

+7
View gallery

Joshua’s body was reportedly in an emaciated state on September 26, 2022 when police attended the four-bedroom brick home he shared with his mother (above)

+7
View gallery

Referring to a broken window at the front of the house in 2022, a neighbour said ‘you can see by the house he used to get a bit stressed’

Read More

 Mum-of-three dies just weeks after giving birth – as family issues warning over symptoms she ignored

‘Following consideration of this matter, it was determined that proceeding further was not in the public interest,’ she said.

Ms Jovanovska has never given an extensive media interview and her case has been largely ignored since the days following her first court appearance.

Daily Mail approached Ms Jovanovska outside the Yagoona house nine days after she had been charged, as she returned home carrying a bag filled with groceries.

‘I can’t say anything,’ she repeatedly said. ‘I just want to be left alone.’

While Ms Jovanovska had not wished to discuss what had happened to her son, sympathetic neighbours described a difficult domestic situation.

It was reported after Joshua’s death that detectives were investigating whether he had any physical or mental conditions stopping him from being able to care for himself.

One resident told the Daily Mail in October 2022 that the Jovanovskas were a ‘lovely family’ but she had sometimes been ‘scared’ of Joshua due to his erratic behaviour.

‘Before Covid he had about 12 months of very bombastic behaviour,’ she said. ‘I was a bit scared of him.

+7
View gallery

Ms Jovanovska’s case had been listed before a judge or magistrate 31 times and was set to be heard, until prosecutors suddenly withdrew the charge without explanation last month

‘I wouldn’t knock on the door because you never knew what mood he’d be in.’

The woman said Ms Jovanovska had moved into the house in 1997 with her parents and brother.

‘They were a lovely, lovely family,’ she said.

Ms Jovanovska’s brother had married and moved to Melbourne, and Ms Jovanovska moved out when she married a man called Adam.

After giving birth to Joshua, Ms Jovanovska moved back into the Yagoona house with her husband and their son.

‘She’s a lovely girl and her husband’s lovely too,’ the neighbour said. ‘I can honestly say they were a lovely family.’

Ms Jovanovska’s parents eventually went to live with their son and daughter-in-law and at some point her husband also left, leaving the mother and son on their own.

‘He was a lovely, friendly boy in the beginning,’ the neighbour said.

Joshua had gone to the local primary school then Bass Hill High, but found that environment troubling.

+7
View gallery

One neighbour said she not seen seen Joshua for two-and-a-half years before he died

‘His mother would have to pick him up because he was playing up or being bullied,’ the neighbour said.

‘He was a big boy who was a bit loud and rough.’

Referring to broken windows at the front of the family’s home, the neighbour said: ‘You can see by the house he used to get a bit stressed as he got older.’

‘I used to see Kathy at the letter box and say, ”How’s Josh?” And she’d say, ”He’s good”.’

The neighbour had not seen Joshua for two-and-a-half years before his death.

‘He could have gone out when I went out,’ she said.

‘If you don’t live in the house you just don’t know. I just feel so sorry for him, what a sad life. I feel so sad for her.

‘I think she did her best. She’s just a lovely person.’

+7
View gallery

A boarded up window is seen at the front of the house in 2022, while a blue mattress is seen leaning against a brick wall

Another neighbour was also sympathetic to Ms Jovanovska’s plight and wondered what support she had been given.

‘For me, It’s just a very sad state of affairs,’ she said.

‘I don’t know how someone could fall through the cracks like that. It just shouldn’t happen.

‘As far as I’m concerned, nobody’s in a position to judge that woman.’

The second neighbour said it would have been hard enough raising a child as a single parent without him having a disability.

‘If you’re not getting respite or support how are you supposed to cope?’ she said.

‘The average person bringing up a child in this day and age has a difficult time so can you imagine this poor woman?

‘I think it’s important people show some compassion rather than crucifying her or sitting in judgement without trying to live her life or stand in her shoes.

‘Unless you are that person living that life no one’s truly going to know.

‘As a mother she now has to live with this and that alone is enough for her, together with what she’s been through.’

The second neighbour was unaware of what assistance Ms Jovanovska had received raising Joshua but said she did not seem to be getting much help.

‘I don’t want her name thrown about as if she’s some sort of monster,’ she said. ‘She was a very kind woman.

‘She did the best she could with what she had.

‘I think in a situation like this it’s about compassion and sympathy. She’s lost her son. People need to understand that.

‘Despite anything else, that was her child.’