Boy 8, roams streets with teens twice his age, as his mum fears he will end up dead

An eight-year-old boy in state care tried to hold up a supermarket with a butter knife and has been ­allowed to roam the streets with teens twice his age, in the latest shocking incident to emerge from Victoria’s child protection system.

The eight-year-old boy has been in and out of state care for more than two years and is now mixing with teens as old as 16.

An eight-year-old boy in state care tried to hold up a supermarket with a butter knife and has been ­allowed to roam the streets with teens twice his age, as his mum pleads for help and a former case worker fears he will end up dead.

The boy, who has an intellectual disability, has been in and out of state care since May 2022 and is now mixing with teenagers as old as 16.

The boy is said to leave his residence almost daily to steal and beg for money at a nearby train station and staff are powerless to stop him.

Among several shocking run-ins with police, the boy ­attempted to hold up a supermarket with a butter knife.

The Herald Sun has previously revealed horrifying individual cases of neglect within the child protection system, ­including children as young as eight being left alone for up to 10 hours a day.

The boy’s mother says her son’s living circumstances are just another example of the state’s flawed system, and claims staff were not trained to deal with his conditions including autism and ADHD.

“They’re damaging him even more and he’s only turning nine soon. What’s going to happen in a few years? He needs help, a lot of help,” she said.

The boy was banned from childcare due to his behaviour and could not attend kindergarten due to the Covid lockdowns in Melbourne.

He left special school due to his behaviour and child protection has not enrolled him at ­another school.

The boy was taken to hospital in early September where it was deemed he was at ­“extreme risk to himself and others”, and had to be sedated to be restrained.

The boy’s mother said he would continue going down the wrong path without appropriate support.

“He’ll be in jail for the rest of his life,” she said.

“I’m worried. This is going to be his life.

“Most likely he’ll end up doing things because he’s said to me he’ll do anything for an energy drink or vape.”

The boy’s former case worker, who works for an external agency, also claimed he was not being adequately cared for as the staff were not trained to deal with disabilities.

The worker also said his former child protection officer – assigned to him for eight weeks – never actually met the boy.

The case worker said the boy left the facility every day to beg for money at a train station.

“You’ve got staff with absolutely no training in disability. If you put an eight-year-old on the streets, of course he’s going to end up dead,” the worker said.

“He’s vulnerable to sex ­offenders, drug users and pedophiles, you name it.”

Last year, it emerged a 12-year-old girl accused of murdering a 37-year-old woman in a Footscray apartment had been living in state care at the time.

The girl, who cannot be named, ran away from carers on average twice a week in the years before she allegedly stabbed the woman dead.

The murder charge was dropped this year after it was found she could not be held criminally responsible.

A spokesman for the Department of Families and Fairness said: “Child Protection works in partnership with disability, health and family services to ensure the safety of children with a disability who are in care, including therapeutic specialists in residential care homes and access to NDIS and other disability supports.”

Originally published as Boy 8, roams streets with teens twice his age, as his mum fears he will end up dead