‘No one gives a f***’: Former carer’s claims of horrific resi care abuse
The state government is being warned to brace for an avalanche of sexual assault compensation claims because of horrific child-on-child abuse alleged to be taking place behind the locked doors of the residential care home system.
Cairns
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The state government is being warned to brace for an avalanche of sexual assault compensation claims – on a similar scale to the national redress scheme – because of horrific child-on-child abuse currently taking place behind locked doors of the residential care home system.
The warning from Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto coincides with claims made by a former Cairns resi care worker, who has detailed bombshell first-hand insight into abuse.
The former worker, who requested her name be withheld, said she was thrown in the deep end to look after high care children at an Atherton residential care facility operated by Alternate Care.
Her only qualification was a three-day online course and a requirement to be enrolled in a TAFE-run youth work certificate.
She has said there has been a shocking failure, with kids in care alleged to have been routinely raped by peers while she was employed at an Atherton Tablelands care home.
“My first ever shift, I just literally finished (my course) that day. And I started with the most troubled children. No one wanted to go to that house, so I was a fresh person who had never done it,” she said.
“I got my nose broken, one of the younger girls, she was 10, she got into a locked room and got a knife out and I didn’t even actually know who the house manager was, they didn’t even give me a Child Safety number to call.”
Children in care being housed in Cairns hotel rooms, allegations of a toxic workplace at the Cairns Child Safety department, claims of teen prostitution and drug use within youth residential care homes, and claims of care providers putting profits before child welfare have exposed an industry alleged to be failing the region’s young people in need.
More than 25 full-time equivalent child safety officer positions are sitting vacant in Far North Queensland, a portion of at least 150 positions currently unfilled across Queensland.
According to the 2020-21 Children’s Court annual report, victims of sexual assault and related offences accounted for 10.3 per cent of all offences against the person by child offenders. Within this offence group, victims aged between 10 and 14 years accounted for 44.6 per cent, and a further 25.1 per cent of victims were under 10 years of age.
During Queensland Parliament question time last month, Mr Dametto presented Child Safety Minister Leanne Linard with statistics from the report and asked what was being done to protect children in resi care from other children.
Ms Linard answered by stating Child Safety workers “take account” of a child’s history whenever a young person enters the system.
“Of course an assessment is done of risk, an assessment is done of who is placed in which home,” she told parliament.
However the former resi care worker said she knew of two children, both with a history of sexual abuse, who were housed together.
Staff were forced to take extreme measures to physically separate the two boys.
“A very well-known (sexual) offender was alone in a four-bedroom house and (Alternate Care) were losing money,” the former worker said.
“There was another boy down in Cairns and he had just sexually offended against two little boys in a resi house. He was an 11-year-old sexual predator and they put them together.
The former worker said they put mattresses outside the second boy’s door so the 11-year-old couldn’t get to him and molest him at night.
“We had 24-hour shifts, so we were sitting there alert watching on the mattress so that boy couldn’t get through,” she said.
“We found used condoms under the bed and this boy was singing songs to us saying ‘I get raped every night. No one gives a f**k. No one listens to me’.”
A Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs spokeswoman cited the Child Protection Act when refusing to comment on individual cases, including the Atherton resi care house.
“Whenever any criminal activity, including sexual assault is disclosed to us, staff work with the child and family to report this to the police and support the child,” she said.
Mr Dametto said every Queenslander “should be concerned” about ongoing abuse of children in state care and a veil of secrecy under which the child protection sector operated.
“The shroud of secrecy falls over any interaction we have with the department because of the way the child protection legislation is written,” he said.
“They are not open to public scrutiny and it proves to be a heavy layer of protection.
“In 10 to 20 years to now they’ll claim similar atrocities at the hands of children because the department failed to protect them against other child sex offenders.
“If you have a look at the pillars of child safety the number one concern is to look after the child and that should include protecting children from other children perpetrators.”
The Atherton resi care house has since been shut down, according to the former Alternate Care worker.
The Department of Children and Youth Justice stated there were no residential care houses operating at the address.
Alternate Care was asked about alleged sexual assaults at the Atherton resi care house and whether reports were filed with Child Safety, but a written response failed to address the property specifically.
“While the organisation is restricted, due to confidentiality requirements, from commenting on specific houses, we can confirm that it has strict policies and procedures in place to ensure that any interactions between children and young people that are of concern are immediately reported to the Department of CYJMA,” an authorised spokesman for Alternate Care stated.
“It is the responsibility of the Department of CYJMA to analyse any reports provided to the department and investigate any concerns.”
The spokesman stated Alternate Care was the subject of “ongoing, regular and extensive reviews” undertaken by independent CYJMA auditors however no comment was made about how the organisation handled resi care child-on-child abuse.
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Originally published as ‘No one gives a f***’: Former carer’s claims of horrific resi care abuse
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