How Could You? Hall of Shame-Australia- 3-Year-Old Foster Daughter and her 2-Year-Old Foster Brother

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 Northern Territory, Australia, Aboriginal 3-year-old foster daughter and her 2-year-old brother  were “being abused by her foster family [that] went ignored by the department.”

“When three-year-old Chloe* [name changed]repeatedly arrived for visits with her biological parents with visible injuries, they became worried she was being abused in foster care.

“She’d show up with bad nappies … then it progressed from that to severe bruising, bite mark injuries and then to black eyes,” her father Daniel*[name changed] said.”

“For almost four years, Daniel* and his wife Lucy* [name changed] have been fighting for custody of their daughter and two-year-old son from the Northern Territory’s Department of Children and Families.

He told the ABC the children were placed under territory care as newborns over concerns about his previous involvement in Australia’s underworld and criminal history.”

“Until Chloe was two years old, her parents were seeing their daughter weekly and did not have concerns about her physical safety.

Lucy said that all changed when her little girl started coming to visits with facial injuries, matted hair and soiled nappies, between June and November 2024.”

“After raising allegations that Chloe was being abused to the department, her parents said they were brushed off, and their scheduled appointments with their children became sporadic.

“We pretty much didn’t get any explanations,” Lucy told the ABC.”

“As of January 2025, the most recent month data is available from, Daniel and Lucy’s toddlers are two of 887 children in out-of-home care in the Northern Territory who are set to be impacted by proposed changes to child protection laws.

In the wake of the death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs, the NT government last week introduced new legislation in parliament, which it claims will prioritise safety “above all considerations” in deciding whether a child should be placed in care.”

“The proposal has attracted harsh criticism from child protection advocates, with Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT and the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), saying the changes could negatively impact children in care and accusing the government of a lack of consultation.

Jacynta Krakouer, enterprise fellow with Adelaide University’s Australian Centre for Child Protection, said the planned changes could set a “dangerous precedent, not only for the Northern Territory but also for Australia”.

“This proposed change in the Northern Territory is going to wind back Australian child protection systems and potentially the practice itself by at least 20 to 30 years,” the Melbourne-based researcher said.”

“Among the planned changes is a requirement for the department to make “proactive efforts” to ensure “every opportunity to reunify a child with their family” is investigated, while the child is under a short-term protection order.

However, the changes also restrict those short-term protection orders to a maximum of two years.

Dr Krakouer said if the bill was to pass, that change could make it easier for courts to issue long-term protection orders for children, which could keep them in care until the age of 18 and make it near impossible for families to win their children back.

“Children’s futures should not be decided by an arbitrary legal clock,” she said.”

“”The two-year time limit on reunification does not take into account the complex reality families often live with when they’re intersecting with child protection.

“When you impose this time limit, if parents are not able to get their children back within those two years … you risk damaging children’s long-term safety and wellbeing.””

Parents of children in NT foster care say concerns around black eyes, bite marks ignored by department
[ABC 5/21/26 by Courtney Barrett Peters]

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