Girl X rape scandal: Residential foster care facility had visitors at all hours, inquest hears

THE foster care facility where “vulnerable” teen Girl X overdosed was a “drop-in house” and she was regularly visited by older men, an inquest heard.

• PREDATORS USED VULNERABLE TEEN: INQUEST
• GIRL X TO AUTHORITIES: ‘F*** THE SYSTEM’
• SEX ABUSE WARNINGS MADE BEFORE GIRL X’S DEATH
• TEEN VICTIM WAS PUSHED TO THE VERY EDGE

THE residential foster care facility where the “vulnerable” teen dubbed Girl X overdosed was a “drop-in house” and she was regularly visited by older men who would climb in through her window, an inquest has heard.

The second day of the coronial inquest into the death of the 15-year-old Girl X heard that visitors to the Uniting Care facility Gordon House in Pennant Hills “would come and go at all hours” and that one fearful resident would lock herself in her room.

The family of Girl X, who cannot be identified, arrive at the inquest into her death. Picture: John Grainger

The inquest heard that on occasion up to 10 unapproved visitors could be in a bedroom at the facility — which no longer exists — and as youth workers ushered them out the front door the visitors would run around the back and re-enter through a window.

“It was becoming a bit of a drop-in house,” the caseworker said, referring to a concerned resident who would “lock herself in her room”.

HOW THE DAILY TELEGRAPH BROKE THE ORIGINAL STORY

The Daily Telegraph revealed the “repeated” 2012 rape of Girl X, then 14, while at a different foster care facility.

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

The case worker broke down when describing Girl X as bubbly and effervescent. Picture: John Grainger

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

Allegations emerged that other children were sexually assaulted at the same facility, as day one of the inquest heard Girl X had been “used and abused” by “predatory” adults who forced her into “criminal activity” and “possible prostitution”.

HOW THE DAILY TELEGRAPH CONFRONTED ALLEGED RAPIST

The inquest heard yesterday that Girl X was having “privacy issues” and that her drug use had escalated in the month prior to her death.

A caseworker told the court that, while Girl X acknowledged she was a drug user, the girl did not believe she was a “drug abuser”.

Girl X was “used and abused” by “predatory” adults who forced her into “criminal activity” and “possible prostitution”, the inquest heard.

The caseworker said Girl X was “exhausted” and the prospect of giving evidence against her alleged rapist in the upcoming District Court trial was “overwhelming”.

Girl X’s biological father and stepmother, her aunt and brothers were in court. The inquest, before Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee, continues today.

Girl X died of a drug overdose.

TWO MORE ASSAULTS AT CHILD CENTRE

Clarissa Bye

CHILDREN are still being cared for at the same inner-city group home where Girl X was allegedly raped — despite Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard admitting he has been informed of two previous incidents of staff sexually assaulting children at the centre.

The two cases, from “three or four years” ago, were the subject of police investigations, with “prosecutions under way”, Mr Hazzard said.

Opposition Family and Community Services Minister Tania Mihailuk said there were “very serious concerns for the children still living there”.

The residential home — which cares for foster children who have been removed from homes because of neglect or abuse — is run by one of the state’s biggest charities, which can’t be named due to suppression orders.

“The Minster should immediately suspend the provider’s contract and order a full-scale independent inquiry,” Ms Mihailuk said.

Mr Hazzard said he was ”not excluding the possibility of closing the facility in which Girl X was allegedly sexually assaulted.”