How Could You? Hall of Shame-Australia-Jolene-Adult Death

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 Australia, “”Jolene” was physically, emotionally and sexually abused from infancy and was admitted to hospital more than 100 times.”

“Jolene was suing the Department of Community and Family Services (DOCS) for failing to protect her, but took her own life two weeks ago, before the case made it to court. She was 28.”

“A lawyer is urging child protection authorities to learn from the recent death of one of her clients, who took her own life after enduring more than 55 foster care placements as a child.”

“A former nurse told the ABC Jolene regularly self-harmed so she could be admitted to hospital, because it was the only place she felt safe.”

“Her lawyer, Neisha Shepherd, said Jolene left a will and she planned to continue the court action, on behalf of her estate.

Ms Shepherd said Jolene’s case was one of the most shocking she had encountered in her 25 years as a child advocate.

“It’s one of the worst cases I’ve ever come across in terms of inconsistency of placements, inconsistency with education, being continually exposed to abuse and trauma throughout her whole life,” she said.

Every part of Jolene’s story was tragic: lawyer

Ms Shepherd, a Newcastle-based children’s and family law specialist, first met Jolene when she was 18.

“She needed an advocate,” Ms Shepherd said.

“She was broken. She was distressed. She was crying. She felt no-one had ever believed her and how could I possibly help her”.

Over time, Jolene revealed the horrific extent of her childhood abuse.

“She told me her story and it came in bits and pieces and it was tragic, every part of it,” Ms Shepherd said.

“She was sexually abused by her father throughout most of her life. She had been physically abused by her mother. She’d been exposed to domestic violence when she was little.

“She’d had over 55 changes in her placement. She’d never had one school that she could go to all the time and she didn’t really have any friends.

“She was lonely, she had no family, she had nowhere to go and no-one believed her. She was a child that fell through the cracks.”

Child repeatedly returned to abusive home

Ms Shepherd said records showed Jolene was self-mutilating when she was just four years old.

“She was so hurt by the sexual abuse. Then she progressed through a system that she thought was going to protect her, that she thought she’d be safe. But for her, that didn’t happen,” Ms Shepherd said.

Ms Shepherd said while Jolene was removed from her family at a young age, she was repeatedly returned home, where the abuse would continue.

Jolene was also physically and sexually assaulted in care. When she was 13 she was placed in an all-male youth refuge, where she was raped.

So frequent was the sexual abuse that she developed a “neurogenic bladder” and was unable to urinate without a catheter. She was also suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

Isabel Reed, now a barrister, used to work as a nurse in the paediatric ward of the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, where she got to know Jolene.

“She was this incredible-looking, beautiful, dark-skinned child but she just seemed to arrive with this chaos,” Ms Reed said.

“There were so many family members and all these kind of people around her.

“I just remember thinking, ‘what a mess’. It just kind of stuck in my memory as, there she was, this beautiful child in amongst this whirlwind of chaos.”

Ms Reed said it seemed like Jolene was arriving every weekend.

“At that stage, we were as close to family really as she had because she was just moving from placement to placement,” Ms Reed said.

“She managed to maintain herself and her dignity as much as she could during that time but we all know that there just really wasn’t enough being done.”

Ms Shepherd said shortly before Jolene took her life, Jolene instructed her to sue DOCS.

“Jolene asked me if she could make the state accountable for what happened to her and we initiated a claim in the Supreme Court that looked at the failings of protecting her when she was first born until she was placed in care, given all the reports that had been made about her and all the exposure to violence that she’d suffered,” Ms Shepherd said.

“And then the failings to protect her as she grew up and particularly in relation to having one permanent placement. She never ever got to experience a permanent placement.

“She didn’t ever have the opportunity to attach or to bond with people and that’s what the case is about. It’s about trying to have responsibility taken for her and her circumstances.”

Case shines spotlight on need for adult care

Ms Shepherd said Jolene’s case also highlighted the state’s failure to provide ongoing care for young people once they became young adults.

“At 18, she walks out into the world on her own. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn’t have anyone. All she had was a few select people and her lawyer. I think that’s a tragedy within itself,” Ms Shepherd said.

She said Jolene wanted her story told so it might spare other foster children from the same plight.

“She always said to me, ‘Neisha if anything ever happens to me, could you please make sure you tell my story? And could you please make sure my life mattered?'” Ms Shepherd said.

“That’s why I’m telling her story. She needs to live on and her message needs to be heard. She wanted to contribute to a change in the system.”

Ms Shepherd hopes to publish an illustrated book of Jolene’s poems, to raise funds for other children in care.”

Foster child suicide: Lawyer for woman who killed herself after 55 placements calls for change [ABC 12/8/15 by Lorna Knowles]

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