Ice-addled parents stripped of eight kids — now fighting to keep baby nine

EXCLUSIVE: A pair of ice-addled parents from Blacktown stripped of an astonishing eight children have been given a full time care worker to help them try to keep their ninth newborn.

• Coroner finds state left teen ‘open to abuse from predatory adults’
• Girl X rape scandal: How predators used vulnerable teen

A BLACKTOWN ice addict mother and her violent partner, who have had eight children taken away from them, are trying to keep their ninth newborn through a radical new child protection scheme that includes a fulltime care worker in their home.

Part of the services offered to the couple was also group therapy sessions before their baby boy was even born.

Their ninth child was one of the more than 2000 unborn babies across NSW each year now being identified as “at risk of significant harm” before birth.

Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard said the “appalling” reality was some NSW parents “know more about dope than they do about the food necessary to keep their babies alive”.

Girl X, who died of a drug overdose while in care, was used and abused by predatory adults who involved her in criminal activity.

Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard said some parents knew more about dope than about keeping their babies alive.

He said there was “far too much domestic violence, far too much drugs, far too much alcohol” creating “recipes for disastrous lives for children”.

But simply taking these children from their parents was not the answer.

“There is absolutely no question that removing a baby from a mum is no guarantee that baby is going to have a positive future,” Mr Hazzard said. “Sadly, too many children in foster care end up with very negative lives.”

New figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal 2227 unborn babies were classified as being “at significant risk of harm” in 2014/15.

Family and Community Services — which is reeling from the Girl X scandal where it was revealed a vulnerable 14-year-old girl was allegedly repeatedly raped in a group foster home by staff before then later dying from a drug overdose while in care at another facility — is trialling several new early intervention programs.

Mr Hazzard recently told The Daily Telegraph that he wanted to dramatically reduce the number of kids in out-of-home care.

CCTV footage from the night Girl X overdosed, shows numerous people, who were not residents of the foster care residential facility, running across the front lawn and sneaking in through her window. Picture: ABC

A new “pregnancy family conference” joint scheme run by FACS and NSW Health identifies unborn babies at risk and then sets up meetings between authorities and the family that friends are permitted to attend.

Nine families have gone through the program so far, with seven children staying with their parents and two ending up in care.

“These are all families who have lost all their other children,” the newly appointed vulnerable families co-ordinator for Western Sydney Local Health District Kylie Hughes said.

Ms Hughes revealed the case of the Blacktown couple — who had lost eight children because of drugs, alcohol and domestic violence issues.

Yet they have retained custody of their newborn baby boy, who is now seven months old, and were “thriving” thanks to several pilot programs. “They were booked into Blacktown Hospital, which was our pilot site for the pregnancy family meetings so they attended and went through three pregnancy family meetings,” Ms Hughes said.

“They then moved into our MASH (Making a Safe Home) program.

“We actually put services in their house. We had someone in their house with them for 40 hours a week assisting them with their interactions with the baby (and) observing them and ensuring that there was no more violence.

“Now we’ve managed to reduce the number of services and they go out to visit the service and they have case management outside of the home.” Ms Hughes said early intervention and “hands on” support could make a difference, but it had to be funded properly.

Kylie Hughes at the Mount Druitt Community Health Centre. Picture: Adam Yip/ The Daily Telegraph

Opposition FACS spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk said it was “heartbreaking” so many unborn babies were being classified as at risk.

“This minister must allocate prenatal case managers to every FACS district to ensure that necessary early intervention support is there to stop these babies from becoming just another tragic statistic,” she said.

“If there are innovative methods of providing the appropriate support, then why not roll it out to every FACS district? In the end it’s about funding case workers and given this government’s poor budget record, it’s clear their priorities are not on reducing the magnitude of babies that are at risk.”

STATE OF SHAME

THE TRAGIC CASE OF GIRL X

Girl X was “used and abused by predatory adults” who involved her in “criminal activities, drug use and probably prostitution” while in state care. Before her inquest made national headlines, The Daily Telegraph exposed how at the age of 14 she had allegedly been repeatedly raped by care workers at a foster home.

Charges against one of the workers, Batta Edrin Nsereko, were dropped when Girl X died of a drug overdose while in another facility. This was despite evidence that the odds of DNA found on Girl X’s underwear belonging to anyone else were “100 billion to one”. Nsereko has denied raping Girl X.

The DPP is currently reviewing the case against Nsereko.

HIS TINY BODY BLACK AND BLUE

A MAN will spend at least 12 years behind bars after he forced a four-year-old boy to stand in the backyard of a Western Sydney home holding a sandstone brick over his head. The child suffered fractures and bruising to his entire body.

The Daily Telegraph can today reveal the little boy’s abuse was only discovered after the child’s mother took the boy to a meeting with her Family and Community Services caseworker, who then rushed the child to hospital.

The child — who lived with the man, the man’s de facto and the child’s mother — was found to have “significant bruising” to his entire torso, abrasions to his face, elbows, feet, back and thighs, fractures to his radius and ulna, toes and feet, fingers, ribs and vertebrae and missing teeth. He had also been continually kicked and punched. The man was sentenced to 16 years in Parramatta District Court last week, with a non-parole period of 12 years.

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

A young disabled boy, dubbed Boy X, was “seriously” starved and kept from proper schooling for “six years”. When he was finally rescued, investigators also found a disabled woman “barricaded in her bedroom” living as a prisoner in the same house. The “conduct” by several government agencies was so appalling a secret taskforce was set up to “monitor” how they got it so wrong.

‘SHOW ME YOUR P****’

Youth worker Lee Griffin, 39, allegedly demanded a 15-year-old girl under his care rub his penis “up and down”. The 39-year-old “carer” from Southern Youth and Family Services Refuge in Nowra has been charged with two counts of an aggravated act of indecency and two counts of aggravated indecent assault, following the alleged abuse of the girl in September.

Court documents allege that in one late-night incident Griffin allegedly told the girl to “show him her body” because it “was his birthday”. He then said he would be back at 7am and “maybe then you might show me your p****,” he allegedly said. Griffin’s lawyer told media his client would fight the charges.

FIGHTING FOR LIFE

An 11-month-old Lithgow baby girl was found “unresponsive” with serious head injuries after an alleged “cot fall” last week. The baby had been living with her “carer”. It is believed the woman was not at home when the incident occurred and that it was her male partner who called emergency services.

Police are investigating.