How Could You? Hall of Shame-Australia-Foster Carer UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Western Australia, “Western Australia police are investigating an allegation that a 13-year-old Aboriginal girl has been sexually abused while in the care of a departmental foster carer.
WA’s Department of Child Protection has also been directed by its minister to look into a separate complaint that the same child has been subjected to physical abuse and neglect while in care in the northern mining town of Newman, in the Pilbara region.
Communities Minister Simone McGurk, who is on leave, said yesterday she had been made aware of the child’s case.
The allegations are believed to relate to at least two incidents, one in May and one last week, in which it was claimed the child was beaten by adult carers.
A group of Aboriginal residents are understood to have sent the Department of Communities, Child Protection and Family Support a list of concerns alleging physical and emotional abuse and neglect of the girl, who has run away from her foster home. A separate complaint made to a police hotline relates to alleged sexual abuse of the child. It is understood there are other children in the care of the accused foster parent.
Confirmation that police and child protection are investigating the complaints comes after The Australian revealed last week that federal Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt had warned three state ministers — for police, child protection and health — early this year that community members had expressed to him “serious and disturbing accounts” of child abuse in and around Newman.
Ms McGurk told Mr Wyatt in a letter of reply that her department had acted to identify the children in the allegations he had raised.
“Communities have been able to identify only two families from the information provided, and can confirm there is current involvement with both families,” Ms McGurk told Mr Wyatt in the letter dated January 24.
“Communities has been unable to identify the other families referred to in the correspondence, however is working with other services in the area in an ongoing attempt to investigate the concerns raised.”
The Department of Communities has previously declined to answer questions about allegations of abuse and neglect of children in care in Newman. In a response to The Australian in May, the department cited confidentiality provisions of state law.
In her report into the rape of a two-year-old girl in the Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek, NT Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gwynne criticised child welfare authorities for holding privacy considerations in higher regard than safeguarding the safety of the child.
The Newman allegations come as a massive child sex abuse operation continues in another Pilbara town. Operation Fledermaus identified 184 Aboriginal child victims in and around the town of Roebourne. That operation has already expanded to Onslow, and may be extended further.
WA opposition spokesman for child protection Nick Goiran said any person with knowledge of abuse should notify WA Police, Communities, the Education Department or a doctor.
“I am deeply distressed to hear stories coming out of the Newman region of ongoing abuse and neglect of children in care,’’ he said. “The first responsibility of the Minister for Child Protection is to ensure the safety of children, and none more so than those children taken into protective care by the department.”’
Police look into claims of teenage girl abused in foster care
[The Australian 7/9/18 by Victoria Laurie]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“Two people who raised their concerns about alleged abuse of Aboriginal children in foster care by a couple in the remote mining town of Newman have sought protection from police after they say the couple threatened them.
The escalating conflict over the safety of Aboriginal children in the small West Australian town comes as police expand their investigation of abuse of Aboriginal children in the region: it began in Roebourne, where authorities learned that pedophilia was so normalised that Aboriginal children had been prostituting themselves for cash.The Australianrevealed last month that in the iron ore town of Newman, inland from Roebourne, a 13-year-old Aboriginal girl in foster care had disclosed serious allegations of child abuse by a man in whose care she had been placed by Communities, the state’s child protection agency.
A restraining order has been served on the man and his partner, a foster carer authorised by WA’s Child Protection Department, after they turned up to the workplaces of two adults they believed responsible for taking allegations to authorities.
The man and woman are alleged to have hurled abuse at the adults.
In an audio recording heard by The Australian, the girl in the case spoke in a mix of her Martu language and colloquial English as she told her aunt that the man had told another girl “Let’s go to the room”.
“They was getting silly,” the girl said. Among Aboriginal people in the Pilbara, the phrase “getting silly” is commonly understood to mean “having sex”.
The girl said the man put a blanket in the window to make it dark. Asked how many people he was “getting silly to”, the girl gave several names of children and teenage girls she said were being touched by the man, including a foster child aged about four.
“All of the kids in that house, little ones, he’s touching,” she said.
The girl said the man was “getting worried for me” that she might tell others about the alleged abuse.
“I was scared, I was thinking he was going to be rude (sexually abusive) to me.”
The 13-year-old, who has told relatives that the couple physically assaulted her, denied it was her voice on the tape when interviewed by police and child protection workers.
However, the aunt of the girl who made the recording and handed it to Communities has not been interviewed by police or child protection.
A spokeswoman for Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk has told The Australian that police had been unable to verify the girl’s taped allegations of child sexual abuse, but police were still investigating the claim of physical abuse.
The 13-year-old girl has been moved to a new foster family, but several children remained in the care of the couple during a police investigation into the taped allegations.
The couple were the subject of a formal child protection concern referral lodged last month with Communities by family members of the 13-year-old girl and by the two individuals, who say they have since been targeted by the couple.
Their complaints were preceded last November by another person who approached Federal Indigenous Health minister Ken Wyatt with concerns about children in care in Newman.
In January, Mr Wyatt wrote to three WA ministers (for health, police and child welfare) about “serious and disturbing” allegations of abuse and extreme neglect of children in care in and around Newman.
Mr Wyatt raised the allegations with WA Health Minister Roger Cook, who told him in a written response that mandatory reporting was robust at Newman Hospital.”
Foster couple’s threat over sex abuse claims
[The Australian 8/16/18 By Victoria Laurie]
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