Child Protection Minister under fire as report finds five pregnant children in state care

A South Australian minister has been blasted in parliament after a report revealed ‘shocking’ information about young girls becoming pregnant while in state care.

The SA Child Protection Minister is again under fire after it was found that there were five children in state care who were impregnated. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

South Australia’s child protection minister is again under fire after an independent investigation revealed five pregnancies among girls in state care.

A report released on Tuesday probed the Child Protection Department’s handling of two separate cases of young teenagers in care who were sexually abused by paedophiles.

One girl, 13, became pregnant in the course of the abuse, and the other, of a similar age, was abused while pregnant to a different man.

Former Judge Paul Rice was asked to conduct a review in December 2020 after it was revealed the minister, Rachel Sanderson, only became aware of the cases when two men were sentenced for sexual abuse.

Mr Rice said he was informed of five “at the present time” when he asked the department how many pregnancies there were among children in state care.

He also asked for figures over the past five years, he wrote, but was told they were not available as teenage pregnancies were “were an ongoing problem across all social levels”.

“I was told that normally pregnancy would not be reported because ‘children in care are no different to … other children’,” he wrote.

He noted none of the pregnancies had been the subject of an Incident Management Procedure report and a child in care becoming pregnant was not specifically referred to in notification procedures.

“It could be said to be a relevant incident by implication when there has been sexual abuse involving sexual intercourse with a female child, but it should be expressly included,” he wrote.

The state opposition slammed Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson over the issue during question time in parliament on Wednesday.

Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson did not front the media on Wednesday, but said in question time she read the review “several times”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas said the report’s figure was a “truly shocking revelation”.

The opposition child protection spokeswoman Katrine Hildyard said there were too many unanswered questions that needed answers and called for Ms Sanderson to be sacked.

“Sanderson has proved herself to be utterly incapable of handling this portfolio. An independent inquiry has found she has failed,” she said.

Ms Sanderson did not front the media on Wednesday, but said in parliament she read the review “several times”.

She reiterated the state government was accepting all recommendations and said she regularly met with the department’s chief executive Cathy Taylor.

“We’ve taken it further to ensure that there is a clear concise and unambiguous reporting system to ensure significant incidents are reported to the minister, chief executive and guardian in future,” she said.

“We’ve taken full responsibility and are taking responsibility for fixing the problem.”

She said she could not discuss individual cases because they involved vulnerable children.

The review was sparked after Ms Sanderson revealed she found out through the media, not her department, when two men were sentenced for abusing girls who were in state care at the time.

In September, Matthew McIntyre, 35, was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail for impregnating and sexually abusing a 13-year-old.

In December, Philip Edwin McIntosh was sentenced to six years and three months for maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a girl aged 13 or 14, who was pregnant at the time to a different man.

The report found Ms Sanderson “significantly failed” to clearly tell her department she wanted to be informed of serious sexual abuse cases, despite publicly claiming that she would be informed.

“It was crucial for the Minister to tell the department that she wanted to know about the serious sexual abuse of children under guardianship. This was a significant failure on the minister’s part,” the report read.

Originally published as Child Protection Minister under fire as report finds five pregnant children in state care