Parents of southern suburbs paedophile victim slam police and child protection

The parents of a young girl targeted by a pedophile were threatened with the removal of their children. Now the Child Protection Department wants to keep the predator’s name secret.

The parents of a child assaulted by a child sexual predator have condemned police and the Child Protection Department, saying they treated them like criminals in their daughter’s time of need.

That serial predator, a southern suburbs former army captain in his 70s, and last month had an already imposing period of non-parole extended after pleading guilty to indecent assault.

The young, primary-school-aged girl he indecently assaulted was not his first child victim, and he will now spend almost 16 years behind bars.

During sentencing submissions in the Adelaide District Court, the girl’s parents told Judge Ian Press the traumatic experience was exacerbated by involvement of both SA Police and the Child Protection Department.

When The Advertiser contacted the department, it was warned not to identify the man – despite there being no legal reason not to.

The southern suburbs convicted paedophile, who The Advertiser was warned not to name. Picture: Supplied

It was the latest example of a highly scrutinised veil of secrecy it holds over its involvement in South Australian criminal matters involving children, and came in the same week it fought to suppress critical details about the death of an infant, who's at-risk status it had been notified of 23 times.

After the girl disclosed the assault, the department’s and police’s involvement, her parents said, left her feeling “betrayed”.

The court was told she was taken out of her classroom by police, unbeknown to her parents, and questioned alongside a care worker.

Judge Press referenced the police involvement in his sentencing, noting he was not “making comment on how matters proceeded”, but they no doubt “caused even more trauma”.

“It is one further example of the far-reaching negative impacts such offending can have on the lives of young children and the lives of the victim’s family,” he said.

The girl’s father told the court he and his wife were “accused of telling (our daughter) not to help or co-operate with detectives” which he said was “completely untrue”.

He went on to explain how he and his wife were instructed by the department to sign a statutory declaration and safety plan saying they would not hinder the investigation, and threatened that their children would be taken from them if they did.

Child Protection Department chief executive Cathy Taylor. Picture Roger Wyman

Child Protection Department deputy chief executive Fiona Ward. Picture: UniSA

The girl’s mother described the threat made her family feel like they were “in the wrong”.

“This was heartbreaking,” she said.

“We were made to feel like we were the offenders instead of the victim’s parents.

“We completely lost trust in the DCP, SA Police and the legal system, which are all supposed to be there to protect us and keep us safe.”

The Child Protection Department, whose chief executive is Cathy Taylor, was asked if it was standard process to get parents to be threatened with the loss of their children, and made to sign statutory declarations.

Deputy chief executive Fiona Ward did not respond to the question, and instead said, “to protect the privacy of children and young people, the department does not discuss its involvement in individual cases”.

An SA Police spokeswoman said the girl was interviewed “in the presence of a support worker”.

“It is not uncommon for police to speak to children in the absence of a parent, but with an appropriate representative present, (in certain situations),” she said.