Inquest documents reveal Child Protection Department were aware of the statutory rape of 15-year-old mother trying for second child

The Child Protection Department was aware that a 15-year-old girl was “trying for her second child” with her 17-year-old boyfriend – but did nothing inquest documents reveal.

The Department for Child Protection was aware a 15-year-old mother was the victim of statutory rape as she was trying for a baby with her 17-year-old boyfriend, documents tendered to an inquest reveal.

The Advertiser can also reveal that as recently as this year, the surviving siblings of an 11-week-old boy who died in the care of his “immature” mother in 2018 have been the subject of new reports to the department this year.

Copies of reports to the department detailing concerns about the family and released by the Coroner’s Court show the dozens of interactions between the mother and authorities.

The department found in a case note from November 30, 2017 that there was a “chronic pattern of domestic violence” in the family home where the teenage mother was threatened by her domestic partners.

Photos released by the Coroner’s Court showing the conditions in a house where an 11-week-old. Picture: SA Police.

A case note from March 17, 2017, also show that the department was told the children had been exposed to drug use and that there was a “series of young men” who would visit the house to use drugs.

However, when drug tested in April that year the mother returned a negative result. Her partner, the father of one of three children, tested positive to THC, indicating he had consumed cannabis.

After the baby boy at the centre of the inquest was born, the mother, baby and his two siblings moved into a housing estate flat with the child’s biological father.

However, they left a short time later when there was a home invasion because the father owed money for drugs.

Photos released by the Coroner’s Court showing the conditions in a house where an 11-week-old. Picture: SA Police.

In the weeks before the death of the child the department became aware that the house in which the family lived was falling into a squalid state and noted the mother was struggling to care for her existing children, was “immature” and “lacked basic life skills”.

It had received 23 notifications about the family since the mother became pregnant with her first child in 2015.

The documents show the mother had herself grown up in squalor with reports dating back to the early 2000s expressing concern about her care growing up. The documents also note a lot of her issues “stem from her own childhood experience and trauma”.

The department’s documents also note a police officer who entered the property after the infant’s death reported it was “the worst house” he had seen in 20 years. The squalor was reported as 21 on a scale of 30, where a level or 12 or over is considered as requiring intervention.

Police raised concerns about the safety of the other children with the department, and in an affidavit after the death an investigator expressed his “disappointment” at the department’s lack of action “because it was known that a newborn baby was likely living in squalid conditions”.

Photos released by the Coroner’s Court showing the conditions in a house where an 11-week-old. Picture: SA Police.

On November 24, 2016 a report was entered into the child protection department system noting that the mother, who had only just turned 16, was “trying to get pregnant with her second child”.

“The (mother’s partner) is 18 years of age and there are legal issues involved this time compared to the first pregnancy,” the report notes.

“Advice was ignored.”

Under South Australian legislation the mother was the victim of unlawful sexual intercourse as a minor unable to consent to sexual activity.

In an affidavit tendered to the court, the department’s executive director of service delivery and practice, Sue Macdonald, said the department closed the family’s file in January 2019 but had since received four notifications relating to the family.

Photos released by the Coroner’s Court showing the conditions in a house where an 11-week-old. Picture: SA Police.

One of the notifications was made in October 2021, two in June this year and one in July this year. The notifications flagged concerns about low school attendance, children being bribed with food and the mother disengaging from mental health services.

Three of those reports were not “screened in” to the department’s system but marked only as “notifier concern” reuiring no intervention. A fourth report was referred to the department’s truancy service.

Ms Macdonald said there had not been any reports about the family living in squalid conditions since the infant’s death, nor any about a subsequent child, and that the truancy concerns had abated.

But, she noted that “in hindsight” it was open to department staff “to undertake a more thorough assessment” of the infant’s siblings after his death to ensure their safety.

She said the siblings were not even sighted when meeting with family members after the infant died and that “it would have been useful to consider all of the intervention options” at the time.

The department does not currently have an open case for the family who still engages with a regional assistance service that reports the home is in an “OK” state.

At the time of the infant’s death Ms Macdonald noted the department was closing 55.5 per cent of notifications screened into to its system without action, a rate she said has since reduced to 18.9 per cent in the first three months of the current financial year.

She said the department had “made significant changes” to its practices since the infant’s death.