Girl X rape scandal: Coroner finds state left teen ‘open to abuse at the hands of predatory adults’

JUSTICE for Girl X, who was raped repeatedly by two of her carers in a foster care facility, came a step closer yesterday when a court ruled The Telegraph could identify her alleged attacker.

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JUSTICE for Girl X, who was raped repeatedly by two of her carers in a foster care facility, came a step closer yesterday when a court ruled The Daily Telegraph could identify alleged attacker Batta Edrin Nsereko.

The Telegraph revealed the rape charge against Nsereko was dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions after the girl died in state care, just two weeks before the case was set for trial in 2014.

Identified... Alleged attacker Batta Edrin Nsereko. Picture: Adam Taylor

It was alleged Nsereko raped her while on a “sleepover” shift at a facility in 2012.

Nsereko was outspoken in defence of his actions when confronted by The Telegraph at his Willoughby home last month, but yesterday hid in his lawyer’s car and exited out the back of the Coroner’s Court following a failed attempt to have his name suppressed.

Nsereko remained in the complex while the emotional family of Girl X listened to Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee hand down his findings into the death of the “vulnerable teen”.

Girl X wanted a good job and to lead a normal life by the age of 18.

But the 15-year-old died after a fatal overdose of hard drugs.

CARELESS CUT THAT ENDED TRAGIC TEEN

Girl X would be alive today if somebody at her foster refuge facility had found her earlier and called for medical help, it was confirmed in the Coroner Court.

In handing down his findings into the drug overdose death in state care of the 15-year-old dubbed Girl X, Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee also determined she was severely anxious about having to testify against her alleged rapist Batta Edrin Nsereko at an upcoming trial.

The Daily Telegraph revealed he allegedly repeatedly raped her when she was 14 and under his care at a Wesley Mission-run residential foster care facility.

Several people were caught on CCTV entering and exiting Girl X’s room through a window. Courtesy: ABC

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The case was dropped after her death, despite a report claiming that the odds the DNA evidence that was found on Girl X’s underwear could have belonged to someone else being 100 billion to one.

Mr Lee said yesterday it “was a stressful and difficult experience for (Girl X)” and she “found the whole process to be extremely challenging and difficult to talk about”.

The inquest found that adult visitors were routinely sneaking into her room at Uniting Care-run Gordon House and it could have been prevented had “funding” not been cut for an “awake shift” at the centre.

Girl X died following an “accidental overdose” after injecting a speedball of heroin and ice on April 20, 2014, after a drug user she was in a relationship with entered her room at Gordon House. The next morning the girl’s friends heard her breathing strangely and paramedics were called about 11.30am.

She was taken to hospital but died from hypoxic brain injury in the early hours of Easter Monday.

CCTV footage from the night Girl X overdosed, shows numerous people, who were not residents of the foster care residential facility. Courtesy: ABC

The Daily Telegraph’s expose has revealed systemic failings within the foster care system, as critics call for serious reform.

Nsereko, 30, who remained in a small room at the Coroner’s Court yesterday as Girl X’s devastated family listened to Mr Lee’s findings, failed to fight a suppression into the publication of his name.

Mr Lee said he could not “see a distinction between Nsereko’s case and any other individual charged with a serious offence” and found no special circumstances to grant an application for suppression.

Mr Lee made no specific recommendations but “more could have been done,” he said.

Girl X first came to the attention of Family and Community Services when she was three months old, and parental responsibility of Girl X and her twin brothers, who are 10 months younger than her, was given to the Minister for FACS in June 2001. The children were restored to their mother’s care in July 2002 but four months later were placed in their father’s care. They were later placed with carers.

Tragic teen Girl X.

In December 2005, final orders were given to the Minister for FACS for the parental responsibility of Girl X and her brothers until they turned 18. The children were sent to live with a paternal aunt in Queensland and for the next five-and-a-half years but were subjected to “physical abuse”. Girl X took an overdose of Seroquel, a bipolar disorder medication, to alert authorities to the abuse and the children were removed.

By the time Girl X reached Gordon House in February 2013 “the damage done … was all but irreversible”.

The court heard that “Girl X wanted to stay out of trouble, get a good job and live in a nice place when she turned 18”.

Family and friends of Girl X, including her father, arrive at the Coroners court in Glebe. Picture John Grainger