The 5 little heroes we shouldn't have to know about.

“It sucks because he was a good dad beforehand. He used to take us to places and he was really fun and nice but when he did that it was kind of sad.”

They are the words of Jayden Moore from last night’s 60 Minutes and “kind of sad” is an understatement of epic proportions. The 14-year old boy is speaking about the night in April last year when his father stormed into his mother’s house with a gun and attempted to kill her.

On hearing her ex-partner’s car screech into the driveway, Rachael Moore told Tara Brown from 60 Minutes, she immediately sensed danger and huddled her five children in a room. She was scared but she didn’t anticipate Daryl Fields having a gun.

The children recall their fear at hearing him stomp through the house, they screamed at him to stop but watched in horror as their father pointed a gun at their mother and shot her. They leapt into action.

“I actually thought, ‘That’s it.’ I thought it might have been the end for the whole family, all my brothers and sisters as well, maybe,” Cameron, who is just 12, said. “I guess my body just decided I’m going to do what I can to stop this, no matter what I have to do.”

He ran forward, elbowed his father and disarmed him as he attempted to reload the rifle. Kaylea, his ten-year-old daughter pleaded with him. “Don’t do it, Daddy,” and he replied, “You don’t have a dad anymore.”

While Daryl attempted to choke their mother, Jayden sprang into action. “I just hopped on his back and started choking him and I bit him a couple of times, I think. And then Cameron ran in after he’d hid the gun and punched him in the side of the head, and he landed on me so I couldn’t get out or anything ‘cause he’s too heavy, so I just put him in a chokehold,” Jayden recounts.

Ten-year-old Kaylea managed to carry her mum to safety and bandage her arm, badly injured from the gunshot.

The story is as inexplicable as it is heartbreaking. Five children spanning in age from 14 to two mobilised to save their mother’s life. Four-year-old Zane took his two-year-old sister Samantha to hide under their bed. Against the odds the older children fought their father — who was deadly drunk, enraged and double their size — kept their mum alive and called the police.

In hospital that night Rachael nearly died five times. After 15 operations she retained her arm and is now slowly rebuilding movement in her hand, but most importantly, she is alive. Daryl is behind bars, serving jail time for attempted murder.

Rachael’s experience of domestic violence will resonate with many: it wasn’t violent or toxic to begin with. She fell in love with a gentle, patient man and for seven years they were happy.

“He listened to the things I was upset about and talked me through and he was genuinely an absolute lovely person and no-one would tell you different,” Rachael told Tara Brown.

Three years ago that changed when Daryl viciously attacked her. Having experienced domestic violence in a previous relationship, Rachael was resolute and ended the relationship.

“I could see all the kids’ faces and I just said, ‘I promise that’s it, never again, I promised you never’,” Rachael said.

Daryl moved out and for the next two years their separation was amicable, until the night in April last year when Daryl arrived with a gun and murderous intent.

How can the five children ever reconcile the fact that their father, a man whom they loved and believed loved them back, tried to kill their mother? A father who used to build with them in the backyard? A dad who was once kind and loving? How can they reconcile that with the cruelty and violence? It is incomprehensible.

Tara Brown began her compelling report last night with an observation: “Somehow, it takes the personal, harrowing stories to drive home the full horror of this national tragedy. Usually the stories are told by women, stories of survival and resilience. We never hear from the children, the silent victims of family violence.”

Children are victims of family violence: even when their parents aren’t killed or they don’t encounter something as harrowing as the Moore children did, they are victims. In too many cases, they are killed in acts of family violence. IN the past week alone three children have been murdered by family members.

It is unbearable to confront, even harder to accept than a man killing a women he loves or once loved. And that is the inescapable reality of family violence. It cannot be understood. There is no way of making sense of it. It is brutal and it is exacting a brutal toll.

We should not know of the Moore children’s heroism. Because they should not know the heroism they are capable of.

Did you watch 60 Minutes last night? What did you think of the Moore story?