Crystal Nowland says Child Protection Department ‘did nothing’ after stabbing

The mother of the little girl whose tragic death sparked another SA child protection review says the welcome findings have arrived years too late.

Crystal Nowland mother of Charlie. Picture: Tom Huntley

The mother of six-year-old Charlie Nowland, whose death in July sparked a criminal investigation, says the Child Protection Department should have been assessing at-risk kids years ago, after a review into her youngest daughter’s death identified hundreds of children in “particularly high-risk settings”.

Charlie’s mother, Crystal Nowland, told The Advertiser she supported the Hyde review’s recommendations but said that it had come too late.

“They needed to start looking into kids years ago,” Ms Nowland said.

“There are so many children that need to be looked at.

“There’s been so many children that have been hurt.”

Ms Nowland has been at the centre of a police investigation into Charlie’s death. She has previously said she was “not a perfect mum” but denied she has ever neglected her children. No charges have been laid.

Ms Nowland said if she had been given the help she asked the department for, after being attacked by Charlie’s father, John Nowland, in front of her children, her youngest would still be alive.

“I asked for help when I got stabbed and they just did nothing,” she said.

“They’ve also got to wear what they did.

“I just hope that when somebody asks for help they don’t just shut them off and actually help.

“I just hope that they actually listen and help, not wait for a year and a half or two years.”

However, Ms Nowland agreed department staff needed more training – one of the recommendations – around how to support parents dealing with the system rather than “gunning for” parents.

“They make that person out to be the bad person when they’ve asked for help,” she said.

“They need more training and more advocacy.

“They need to not just go at you and go ‘it’s this way’.

“Take the time to bloody hear them. Take the time to hear the children.”

Ms Nowland said she was not told by the government that the report into Charlie and Makai’s deaths would be released on Wednesday and had phoned Mount Gambier Prison to warn Charlie’s father.

Charlie Nowland. Picture: Russell Millard

Makai Wanganeen. Picture: Supplied

“I didn’t even know that they were putting out a report,” she said.

“It would be nice to actually know.”

Ms Nowland said it shouldn’t have taken her daughter’s death for a review into the department to be done.

“There’s been so many children that have been hurt and everything like that, that they haven’t looked into, but then something happened like with Charlie and they’ve cast me as ‘I’ve neglected her’ or ‘I didn’t look after my children’ when I did but I did,” she said.

“They’re gunning for me but what about the children out there that really do need it like the ones that have been.”

Ms Nowland said she was not told by the government that the report into Charlie’s death and the unrelated death of Makai Wanganeen would be released on Wednesday and had phoned Mount Gambier Prison to warn Charlie’s father.

She also said if the department had given her the help she needed, Charlie would not have died.

“She’d be alive,” Ms Nowland said.