Cruellest of lies

FOSTER carers are sometimes left in limbo, facing unspecified allegations of abuse.

The foster parents in the room 'Britney' occupied for 10 months before she was removed from their care by DOCS. Picture: Amos Aikman

THEY were in their late 40s when they met at a tenpin bowling competition. Both were divorced, with five children and 16 grandchildren between them. He'd been a Christian since 1979; she was reared Catholic. Both had joined the Salvation Army. More recently they've joined a Pentecostal church where theirs are the only elderly white faces in the congregation.

They got married 16 years ago and in recent years both have retired from the full-time workforce. He's a former bus driver now on workers compensation; she dabbles in Mary Kay cosmetics.

Last year they decided to become foster parents. "A lot of people at the church have adolescent children," says the woman, who cannot be identified. "We thought we'd be good role models and we have plenty of time on our hands."

The couple attended a six-week training course with the NSW Department of Community Services.

A few weeks later, DOCS called to say: "You're approved and authorised, and we've got a 10-year-old girl. Are you interested?"

The girl was one of nine children, all of them born to a western Sydney prostitute who allows her clients to father her children, often without their knowledge.

She does not stop working while expecting - photographs show that she is obese when not pregnant - and every 18 months or so she gives birth to a child who is immediately taken into state care.

What follows is the couple's account of their 10 chaotic months as foster parents of one of these nine children. It is important to acknowledge that it is exclusively their version of events.

The girl's version of the story isn't known and DOCS cannot comment on individual cases. By law, the girl cannot be identified; let's call her Britney.

Before she arrived at this couple's home, she'd had 11 previous carers; the longest she'd stayed anywhere was five years.

"She was a very hurt little girl," the woman says.

"But we were prepared to help her," her husband adds.

"It took us a month (to figure out something was seriously wrong)," she says.

"One of the first things we noticed is, she would backstab her previous carers," he says.

"Because she was hurt," says his wife.

"She'd say things like knives were thrown at her, a microwave was thrown at her."

She says: "She had an imagination."

He says: "I was inclined to believe her."

"So, first it was the lies," she says. "Then, the anger when she couldn't get her ownway."

"She'd kick the gear lever when you were driving," he says. "She bit me. She scratched me. She kicked me in the shins."

Her foster father believes that Britney "had this thing in her mind that 'I'm not good enough to be treated so nice like this.' She couldn't accept love and she has to push people away."

On the other hand, there were times when she was delightful.

"We took her to an athletics carnival and she won a race. The smile on her face, it wouldn't disappear," he says.

Mostly, her behaviour was troubling.

"She came to the house with a blanket she called her 'security blanket'. She would throw it over herself. She was masturbating. She would be on the couch, or on the floor, and she was masturbating," says the foster mother, who took the blanket and threw it in the rubbish bin.

At church she would say to adults sitting beside her: "I want sex." Another time, she stripped off with another child from the church. Their parents found them naked on a mattress in the garage.

DOCS hinted that she may have been abused. Her foster father had some experience with abuse: when he was an adolescent, he was fondled by the bloke who owned the local army supplies store, who later went to prison for multiple counts of molestation. He pleaded with DOCS for assistance.

Late at night, after Britney had gone to bed, the couple would sometimes sit together and weep. "I'll admit there were times when I thought: 'What have we got ourselves into?"' the foster mother says.

"But we didn't want to give up. It wasn't her fault she was the way she was."

They got a psychologist for Britney, who made it clear in a letter last January that Britney had "severe and complex" psychological problems that required high-level support, including medication.

By then Britney had been expelled from one school and was on a warning at hersecond.

A support worker from the Foster Care Association, who cannot be named because she is acting as an advocate for the couple, says: "They were on the hotline all the time.

"This was a badly bruised girl and they (DOCS) had given her to newbies. He went in heart and hands first, and I have no doubt they are telling the truth."

Through time, Britney became more difficult to control and, after a particularly angry exchange one day, her foster dad said: "If it keeps up, you're going to have to go."

"I'm ashamed of myself for saying that," he says.

A short time later, the couple received a phone call from DOCS. Could they come in to discuss Britney? "The first thing they said to me was: 'We've got an allegation. Did you put your hands down (Britney's) pants?"' he recalls. "I said: 'I most certainly did not.' They said there had been an allegation, a phone call to the DOCS hotline. I said, 'Well, that's completely untrue."'

Allegations of abuse - sexual, physical or psychological - by troubled foster children, or people purporting to represent them, against their foster parents are a significant problem for DOCS.

According to its data, there were 734 allegations of abuse in NSW last year. The average is two complaints a day.

Of these, 54 per cent were not sustained (meaning there was insufficient evidence to prove that anything untoward occurred) and 7per cent were dismissed for other reasons. Twenty per cent were proven to be false (meaning there had been a mistake or there was no evidence of any consequence).

The Foster Care Association says: "It happens all the time and it's absolutely terrifying (for carers) because there is nothing you can do about it and you're guilty until proven innocent."

In a statement to The Australian, DOCS acknowledges the high proportion of allegations that are ultimately unproven, but says "vexatious allegations" (where a foster child makes something up to hurt the foster parents) were proven in less than 2 per cent of cases.

Nevertheless, the statement says: "Very few matters actually result in a carer being de-authorised." Britney's foster father says DOCS asked him if he'd be willing to have Britney in his home while the allegation was investigated. He said: "Of course because I haven't done anything wrong."

Six weeks went by. Then, in June, when the foster mother collected Britney from school, "she got in the car and she said: 'DOCS have been to school today.' I said: 'Have they, darling?' She said: 'They've been asking me hundreds of questions.' I said: 'Like what?' And she said: 'Like have I seen (her foster father's) penis?'

"I said to her: 'I hope you've told them the truth, (Britney)?' I said: 'These are the sorts of things (because of which) they can come and take you away from us.' She said: 'No, no, no, I didn't tell them that', and I knew straight away she was lying. We'd been home an hour when two women came to collect her. They just handed us a letter and said 'There are allegations against you.' I broke down. We were both devastated."

The woman says Britney was standing on the carpeted steps, halfway between her bedroom and the lounge room, "crying her eyes out".

"I said, '(Britney), you have to pack your things. You have to go. They've come to take you.' And she was saying: 'No, no.'

"But I think she knew they were coming, because as she was leaving, she said: 'It's probably for the best."'

The couple understands why DOCS removed Britney from their care.

It could be argued the department had nochoice. In its statement to The Australian, DOCS says: "The safety and welfare of thechildren and young people is the paramount consideration."

Britney's foster parents believe they have the right to know what they've been accused of doing, what the evidence is and how long the investigation will take.

They haven't been charged with any offences or told that they've been de-authorised as carers.

"It's been four months and we've got no idea (what we're accused of doing). We've been through a million things," the foster father says.

"She (Britney) barged in the bathroom once, saw me on the toilet. Was that it? We've been up and down: what could it be? What could it be?"

The couple are entitled to the presumption of innocence; they do not believe they have it.

"They (DOCS) wouldn't tell us anything. They sat on the couch here and said: 'We don't have to tell you anything at all.'

"Now they want to know if I'm happy to talk to police. I'm perfectly happy to talk to police. I just want to know what's been said."

In its statement to The Australian, DOCS acknowledges "unfortunate delays" in finalising investigations.

"In recent years, due to increases in the number of children in care and corresponding increases in the number of allegations being made, there has been additional pressure placed on DOCS's capacity to respond to allegations against carers," it says.

"DOCS acknowledges that in some cases, there have been unfortunate delays in finalising investigations.

"The department recognises it needs to improve the time frames for responding to all allegations and has been addressing this issue for some time."

Sometimes, the department acknowledges, allegations may hang over the heads of carers for two years.

It has been four months since Britney was removed from the couple's home.

The room where she lived for 10 months stands empty: there is a white wicker dressing table, a single bed with a patterned cover and a collection of medals, including one that Britney won at the races that day when she couldn't stop smiling.

"We miss her," the foster mother says. "That's how stupid we are. We treated her like our child.

"She had a lot of problems but we kept praying and hoping we could deal with it. I really believe that, given time, she was in a good place here and I think to myself, 'Oh (Britney), what have you done?"'