Girl X rape scandal: Case is a textbook case of how to traumatise someone, caseworker says

THE “vulnerable” teen dubbed Girl X was a “textbook” case “of how to traumatise a child,” an ongoing inquest has heard.

• FACILITY WHERE GIRL X DIED HAD VISITORS ALL HOURS
• PREDATORS USED VULNERABLE TEEN: INQUEST

THE “vulnerable” teen dubbed Girl X was a “textbook” case “of how to traumatise a child,” an ongoing inquest has heard.

The girl’s Family and Community Services caseworker told day three of the inquest into Girl X’s death that in his 26 years of working with vulnerable children, Girl X was “by far the most complex and with the highest needs”.

“If you could write a textbook on how to traumatise a child, it would be (Girl X),” the caseworker said.

Girl X took an overdose to raise the plight of herself and her twin brothers.

Girl X was involved ‘in some really serious criminal activity’.

He told the court the 15-year-old was “brave” for deliberately overdosing while in a foster care placement with extended family in Queensland in order to alert authorities to the sexual abuse she was being subjected to. He said she was forced to stay in that “terrible situation” too long.

“(Girl X) took an overdose in Queensland to bring to people’s attention what was going on. I thought that was really brave,” the caseworker told the court. “(She was) easily the young person who had the least reason to trust adults … which led to her having the most complex needs and difficult behaviours.

HOW THE DAILY TELEGRAPH BROKE THE ORIGINAL GIRL X STORY

HOW THE DAILY TELEGRAPH CONFRONTED THE ALLEGED RAPIST

“She would be very clear with me and would tell me to f … off regularly … but if any young person had the right to tell an adult to f … off it was (Girl X).”

The court heard Girl X was “involved in some really serious criminal activity” and that “really serious criminal types were using her vulnerability”.

Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard called for the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse to investigate the home where Girl X was placed.

The Daily Telegraph revealed the “repeated” 2012 rape of Girl X, then 14, while at a different foster care facility to where she was placed when she injected a fatal cocktail of illicit drugs.

The Telegraph also revealed the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charges against her alleged attacker, now 30, after she died and that her rape may not have been reported if Girl X had not attempted suicide the morning after that assault.

On Monday, Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard called for the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse to investigate the home where Girl X was ­repeatedly raped.

Allegations also emerged other children were sexually assaulted at the same facility.

The caseworker told the court that when Girl X was initially placed at Uniting Care’s Gordon House facility in Pennant Hills — which closed following her death — she went “missing” for seven weeks

Family and friends of Girl X arrive at the Coroners Court in Glebe for day 3 of the inquest. Picture: John Grainger

The court heard she had been “happy” at her previous placement despite it being a place where she was raped and had a steady job as a barista at a local cafe had helped stabilise her after the assault.

Her alleged attacker was fired after the rape, as had the other nine staff employed at that residential foster care facility.

The court heard FACS held 23 volumes of information on Girl X’s case and that Gordon House was not able to provide the “intensive care” she needed, but that there was nowhere else for her to go.