Thousands of alleged crimes against SA children reported to police

At risk children are being reported by the state’s child protection department to police as victims of criminal allegations at a rate of more than 17 incidents a day.

A staggering number of vulnerable children reported to the state’s child protection department are at risk of harm and involved in criminal proceedings in which they are the victims.

Figures obtained exclusively by The Advertiser reveal more than 6000 notifications of possible criminal offences were reported by the Child Protection Department to SA Police in the 2021-22 year.

More than 17 reports were made by the department on average every day last year, with some reports being notified more than once.

In total, “approximately” 6300 notifications were made, and about 4300 of them were in regard to a possible criminal offence committed on a child.

The department did not say how many of those notifications related to children already in state care.

A generic stock image of a child. Picture: iStock

A further 2000 were reported by the department, to police, as having been allegedly committed by a close member of their family group.

Speaking anonymously, a woman who cares for a child who has had contact with the department said the amount of criminal allegations involving children in the state’s care was “disgusting”.

She said, in her case, the child she cared for had been severely abused on several occasions, for several years, by a family member, while she was under the watch of the department.

She said she believed the department had failed to adequately act to protect the child from the perpetrator, leaving her in harm’s way as a result.

“There were so many reports just over and over and over again,” she said.

The woman said it was only by chance the child was eventually removed from the “dangerous” situation after somebody else notified police of the abuse.

“Somebody from DCP actually told me, ‘sometimes we ring police’,” she said.

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Department deputy chief executive Fiona Ward, however, would not provide exact numbers or details of possible abuse to The Advertiser.

“The (department’s) case management system allows for most client information to be recorded through individual case notes,” she said.

“As such, it is not possible for all aspects of a child’s care experience to be reported on a population basis.”

Ms Ward said the reports made by the department were categorised as child abuse if perpetrated by a friend, visitor, or stranger.

If they were committed by a parent or guardian, relative or member of the young person’s household, they were reported as “child protection notifications”.

Both forms of allegations, she said, were considered criminal offences.

Ms Ward’s responses came in answer to an exhaustive list of questions from The Advertiser in the wake of a series of allegations heard in South Australian courts in which children in the care of the state were named as alleged victims.

Those allegations ranged from criminal neglect to sexual assault.

The department was unable to provide specifics about how many children in state care either currently were, or had been, victims in criminal proceedings, the crime they were the victim of, or in what setting the crime occurred.

The information comes on the back of an October 2021 report from the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee which showed 473 children who had contact with the child protection system had died between 2005 and 2020.

That group made up 28 per cent of every child and young person’s death in that period.

The group is significantly overrepresented, with about 1.2 per cent of all kids ending up in state care in SA.

The latest report is imminent.