A Floreat couple who infantalised their ballerina daughter and starved her to the point of hospitalisation, concocting a cascading series of lies to pacify the increasing concerns of those in their daughter’s orbit, will spend several years behind bars.
The now 20-year-old young woman at the centre of the case wept in the back of the courtroom as District Court Judge Linda Black sentenced the pair — who cannot be named for legal reasons — over gross negligence she said constituted “wilful blindness of the most extreme kind”.
The case has shocked the nation. Credit: Perth District Court/9 News Perth
The court was told the litany of lies began in 2019, when the pair lied about the girl’s age in what Black described as an attempt to hose down concerns that she said were becoming increasingly apparent.
The then-15-year-old was chronically malnourished, with yellowing skin, thinning hair, a shrinking frame and child-like clothing that had rung alarm bells among her dance instructors.
“A parent that was not neglectful would have taken their daughter to see a medical professional long before you did —it was apparent to everyone around her except the people who professed to love her, and I simply cannot accept you didn’t see it,” Black said.
But the matter escalated beyond conversations in the hallways of the ballet studio in 2020, when the Department of Communities began fielding complaints which led to the parents being charged.
The court was told the girl — who had been homeschooled and had limited social interactions beyond dance classes — was admitted to hospital for almost two months at the age of 16, weighing in at just shy of 28 kilograms.
Doctors raised concerns about her elevated heart rate, flaking skin, and delays in her bone age and puberty caused by prolonged malnutrition, ruling she was at risk of cardiac arrest and placing her on a nasogastric tube.
But despite the mounting evidence about the risk to their daughter’s health, Black said the pair adopted the belief that the dance instructors, medical staff and the authorities were conspiring against them.
Black told the court the pair were committed to the deception, continuing to lie about their daughter’s age by forging her birth certificate.
“You were thinking of yourself,” Black told the girl’s father, who shook his head in the dock.
“Your daughter was fading before your eyes — she was becoming weak, she was exhibiting signs of severe malnutrition and her life was in danger, but you chose to continue to lie about her age. The most egregious [lie] of all.
“But the strongest emotions the two of you expressed were not about your emaciated daughter, but the people who brought the reality to your attention.
“The people who appear to hate most, probably saved your daughter’s life.”
Doctor’s notes tendered in court recited staff hearing her father claim the girl was at risk of becoming “a junkie” for using the nasogastric tube and that authorities were conspiring against them.
Others described witnessing the teenager watching The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine, sitting on her mother’s lap and letting her mother assist her to go to the toilet.
The court was also shown photographs the judge said demonstrated the family’s Floreat home was devoid of anything age-appropriate.
The girl was placed into a foster care arrangement with family members, but returned to the multimillion-dollar family home on her 18th birthday.
The girl’s father wiped away a tear as Black read a letter their daughter had penned in her parents’ defence, maintaining she was solely responsible for her eating habits and pleading with the prosecution to drop the case because she was completely financially dependent on her parents.
“That is the child you created. The fact your daughter felt she could not survive without you is your fault,” she said.
“You have created a child unable to function as an independent adult at more than 20 years of age.
“The dependence you have created, and the interwoven relationship, means she cannot psychologically grasp the concept that the two people who loved her most were the same two people who neglected her.”
Both parents had vehemently denied the offending, pinning the blame on each of their medically diagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorders, which they claimed impacted their judgment.
But Black rubbished their claims, telling the pair she simply could not accept that they did not see that their daughter was “skin and bone”.
The couple — both aged 48 — have been behind bars since November after the jury took just four hours to find them guilty of engaging in reckless conduct while caring for a child.
Black said the pair both lacked credibility as witnesses, were evasive, endeavoured to avoid the obvious truth and had shown no remorse — including for exposing their daughter’s private life to the world.
The judge also lambasted the state’s education department for what she described as a “dismal failure” to ensure the homeschooled child was being adequately monitored.
The girl’s mother was sentenced to five years’ jail and her father 6½.
In handing down the sentence, Black said she considered the recklessness of the offending, the period of time the pair engaged in the conduct, the seriousness of the harm caused and the contempt they had for those trying to help.
“In this case, it is so difficult to know the sentencing exercise will not provide closure or peace, but will further exacerbate the suffering by your daughter,” she told the court.
“I’m sorry I cannot impose a sentence that will bring comfort to your victim.”
The pair will be eligible for parole.
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