Parafield Gardens 'House of Horrors' kids 'virtually unknown' to authorities

SIX children subjected to starvation and torture in Adelaide's so-called House of Horrors case were "virtually unknown'' to state authorities, it has emerged.

A yard full of waste at the Parafield Gardens home known as the ?House of Horrors?.

SIX children subjected to starvation and torture in Adelaide's so-called House of Horrors case were "virtually unknown'' to state authorities, it has emerged.

When police uncovered the Housing Trust home - where six adults and 21 children lived - they said it was infested with swarms of cockroaches, flies and maggots, and faeces was found on the floor.

INSIDE THE HOUSE: See the shocking pictures here

Today - five years after the shocking discovery of the abuse at the Parafield Gardens home - the government released its response to 32 recommendations by the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee into the shocking case.

It received the recommendations in October last year.

Committee chairwoman Deej Eszenyi this morning said there was "almost no information known about the children to state authorities'' until their condition was revealed in 2008.

Neither the committee's recommendations nor the government's response identify any of the systematic failings by authorities to intervene in the child abuse.

However, at a press conference this morning, both Ms Eszenyi and Child Development Minister Jennifer Rankine identified poor information-sharing practices between government agencies as a major contributor.

Ms Rankine said no one government staff member or agency "had the full picture of information or knew that the six children were in the house''.

Ms Eszenyi confirmed that no report was collated which brought together details of the case or how those involved acted.

"Our job is not to look for 'did anybody do anything wrong?','' she said.

"Something went very wrong for these children. The question is how do state authorities know that that is happening?''

Child protection expert Freda Briggs said better inter-agency and cross-state communication would be key to improving child protection in future.

She criticised the lack of a report into the circumstances of the case.

"We are being deprived of information about what went wrong despite different agencies being responsible for the children's situation,'' she said.

"The bottom line seems to be the claim that no-one did anything wrong ... rather than providing an identification of what went wrong.''

The committee reviewed more than 200 documents, such as child truancy alerts and Housing SA and health records, relating to all those who lived in the house but said there was scarce evidence of the existence of the six children, who moved to Adelaide from Victoria not long before the case was exposed.

Ms Rankine said no government worker had been sacked following the case.

She said the government had delayed the release of the recommendations because the media would have criticised it for releasing them without a response.

Opposition child development spokesman David Pisoni said the government had spent the seven months since it received the recommendations "preparing a political response''.

"The government has focused on covering up rather than fixing up,'' he said.

"The government must explain why it took seven months to release these recommendations and what the recommendations were based on.''

When the government received the recommendations in October, a "high-level'' meeting of Health, Education, Housing and Police ministers was convened, although Ms Rankine - who was then Police Minister - had to pull out at the last minute and sent her chief of staff.

It was revealed in The Advertiser a welfare worker saw the conditions inside the house but did not raise the alarm.

However, Ms Rankine this morning said the worker did not sight the children and remained out the front of the house.

She said no disciplinary action was taken against the worker because she did not visit the house in the course of her work.

This is despite Ms Rankine stating everyone had a "moral" obligation to report child abuse if they witnessed it.

The government says legal considerations prevent it from revealing who was responsible, or specifically how the system failed the five children (read their story here) who were starved, bashed and tortured at the Casuarina Drv home.

A yard full of waste at the Parafield Gardens home known as the "House of Horrors".

It was also not revealed if any public servant from any agency has been counselled, reprimanded or sacked as a result of the committee's inquiry.

Five adults were convicted and jailed for the abuse and all the children were placed under the guardianship of the Minister of Child Development.

In the government response, Ms Rankine said "the law requires that information disclosed to the committee about individual cases be kept confidential''.

"In the five years since the case was discovered, the government has put in place many measures to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again,'' Ms Rankine wrote.

The committee recommendations include that:

HOUSING SA staff receive additional training "about indicators of poor living conditions''

WHEN Housing SA receives complaints about poor living conditions it investigates whether children are living in these houses

THE education department "strengthen'' the reporting of children who fail to attend school once enrolled.

WHEN Families SA is notified of child neglect it "sights the children to confirm their well-being''.

ALL staff in hospitals and community health services complete Child Safe Environment training.

The government said it accepted these recommendations.

HOW THE HOUSE OF HORRORS TRAGEDY UNFOLDED

POLICE were alerted to the shocking neglect on June 22, 2008, when one of the children was taken to hospital, starved and badly bruised.

THEY uncovered the "House of Horrors'' on Casuarina Drv at Parafield Gardens, where six adults and 21 children were living.

POLICE described the house as abhorrent and the smell as putrid. It was infested with swarms of cockroaches, flies and maggots, and faeces was found on the floor.

THE court heard shocking details of children being starved and abused while police described the home as a prisoner of war camp.

FIVE people, including the children's mother, were found guilty of abuse and neglect and given custodial sentences ranging from six to 10 years. A sixth person was found not guilty by reason of mental incompetence.

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