Child Protection Department accused of doing nothing on starved boy’s plight for years

Kaydenn’s “carer” neglected the vulnerable teen so badly he looked like a starvation victim. A chain was put on the fridge. He was locked in his room. And authorities let it happen.

Mel and her son Kaydenn, 16, who is once again looking like a healthy teen after being removed from his previous carer. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Kaydenn’s eyes well up with tears when he thinks about what he went through.

He manages a smile talking about life now but it hasn’t been an easy few years.

“I nearly ended my life,” the 16-year-old said sitting at his kitchen table. “I nearly did until my friend calmed me down.”

For seven years, Kaydenn was neglected by a carer – who cannot be named for legal reasons – to the point of serious illness and malnourishment despite years of warnings to the Child Protection Department from concerned relatives.

He said he was starved, strangled and beaten, despite asking repeatedly for the help of department workers, who he said visited once a week.

At 15, he weighed just 46kg. The average weight for someone that age is between 52kg and 56kg.

“I wanted help but no one listened at all,” he said.

“I’d been putting my hand up for help but no one listened. I tried and tried.”

It is understood the department’s involvement with Kaydenn’s carer dated back as early as 1992 and involved her own children.

“She hit me a lot of times,” Kaydenn said. “I have scars from what she’s done.”

Kaydenn shortly before he was removed from his previous carer.

A chain attached to the fridge in the home where Kaydenn lived.

When he was fed, he was forced to eat on a cushion in the hallway while others in the house ate at the table.

“I wasn’t allowed to sit at the table,” he said.

An image obtained by The Advertiser shows a chain hanging by the fridge in the home Kaydenn and his younger brother Benji, who is also back in his mother’s care, lived in. It was used to lock the fridge at night so he couldn’t get food, Kaydenn said.

“I was sneaking enough to get some,” he said. “I was always hungry.” He would wonder where he next meal would come from.

“I could see his heart pumping through his chest,” said Kaydenn’s mother, Mel, recalling the first time she got her son back in her care after years. “His sternum was sticking out.”

Kaydenn weighed 6-10kg less than the healthy weight for his age.

After his rare meals, Kaydenn was forced back into his bedroom, which had been equipped with cameras, alarms and locks so he could not leave.

“I don’t want a camera in my room,” he said tearfully.

“I couldn’t get out.

“If I escaped they’d call the cops on me.

“They barricaded my windows. I couldn’t get out.”

Another photo of the home Kaydenn lived in showed the outside of his bedroom window barricaded with a bed frame.

Kaydenn said the nights spent alone in his room with nothing to do were the worst.

“I’ve been playing imagination for two years,” he said.

In December, 2021, the Child Protection Department received further reports about Kaydenn’s welfare, particularly his weight. When department workers attended the home, Kaydenn was taken to Flinders Medical Centre where he was treated for severe malnourishment.

The window outside Kaydenn’s bedroom barricaded shut.

Kaydenn’s bedroom door fitted with alarms.

“I said, ‘where am I going?’,” Kaydenn recalled.

Staff found no medical explanation for his low weight.

He was kept in hospital for a week, during which he gained almost 1.5kg, before he was placed in his mother’s care.

In the years he spent in the other person’s care, the Child Protection Department received more than 20 reports regarding Kaydenn’s welfare, including reports of inappropriate physical discipline and excessive punishment.

Allegations Kaydenn was being neglected and receiving inadequate food were also reported to the department.

Documents related to Kaydenn and obtained by The Advertiser show reports were made in writing to the department as early as 2017 in a letter from one of the boy’s relatives to Child Protection Department chief executive Cathy Taylor.

But it is understood initial reports were made in 2014.

The letter to Ms Taylor said Kaydenn “appeared malnourished and emaciated” and “his ribs were noticeably visible”.

The letter also raised concerns over “filthy” living conditions in the home.

“It was like the house of horrors,” Mel said. “What child should live like that?”

She said Ms Taylor, who resigned from her role as head of the Child Protection Department last month, never responded.

Former chief executive of SA’s Department for Child Protection Cathy Taylor answers questions alongside Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard. Picture: Emma Brasier

Mel said Kaydenn’s condition was so bad that when he returned to her care in January 2022, he shook uncontrollably and couldn’t read or write his own name. “We had to teach him everything,” she said.

In 2019, reports were also made in writing to then-Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson about Kaydenn and his brother’s welfare.

In response, then-acting deputy chief executive Sue Macdonald said the department had a “mandate to investigate situations where a reasonable suspicion exists that children or young people are at significant risk of serious harm or neglect”.

“Following such assessments, DCP determined the matters raised did not meet the threshold for child protection intervention,” Ms Macdonald wrote.

A Child Protection Department spokeswoman said the safety and protection of young people was “taken seriously” by the department.

“When the safety of the child cannot be maintained at home with family supports, further action is then taken by the department,” the spokeswoman said.

“To protect the privacy of children and young people, the department does not discuss its involvement in individual cases.”

In the past year, Kaydenn has gained about 20kg and started to live his life again.

“I’m allowed to do things here,” he said.

Despite battling to maintain her composure, Mel is glad her son is back on track.

“He’s a normal teenager now,” she said.