The man in the centre is Greg Bird. The footy player accused of smashing up his girlfriend’s face with a glass. When he appeared in court late last week, he surrounded himself with children. The little boy whose hand he’s holding? His toddler brother. The woman in the photo is his sister and she is holding their other baby brother who looks to me to be a couple of months old.

You may have seen the images on TV of him appearing at court….it was a scrum as media scrambled to cover a big story. At one point, his sister began screaming abuse at the media for crowding them, shouting  ‘ Watch out! I have a baby here!”

Yes, you do. So what are you doing dragging that baby into an appalling situation like that?

The Sydney Morning Herald had a great cover story on Friday looking at the cynical way public figures hide behind and clutch onto children when they in the middle of career-damaging accusations. It also published the high court guide-lines that expressly state children should not be brought to court.

Or taken to press conferences. Couch-dancing MP Matt Brown did it with his niece and then his own son as his career imploded.

Former Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett did the same with his daughter.

Greg Bird’s mother has come out in defense of the fact she allowed her little children to be used as pawns by insisting she was just trying to support her son:

Yes, I’m sure the support of a toddler and a newborn was extremely helpful when you’ve been charged with maliciously wounding your girlfriend. And I’m sure those children knew exactly what a fun day they were in for when they were bundled into the car and exposed to the media and then the court proceedings. A fun day out for all.