The girl at the centre of a sensational trial over her neglect has attended a Perth court in support of her parents, writing a statement saying that she does not believe she has been offended against “in any way”.
In November, a wealthy Floreat couple were found guilty of reckless conduct in relation to their daughter.
The girl’s parents outside court last month.Credit: 9News Perth
That conduct included allowing the girl to become dangerously underweight, requiring her to be hospitalised and placed on a nasogastric feeding tube.
The bizarre case garnered much attention when the parents, both aged 47, pleaded not guilty to the charges and the matter went to trial last year.
During the five-week hearing, the court heard how the pair lied to dance school instructors about the girl’s age, how she was dressed and treated like a pre-school child despite being 16 years old, how she was homeschooled and isolated from other people and how her gaunt appearance and yellowing skin caused much concern for the few people who did come into contact with her.
On Thursday the pair, who have been remanded in custody since the jury found them both guilty on all charges, were due to be sentenced in Perth’s District Court but legal submissions in advance of the hearing ran over time delaying the outcome until Friday.
The court was told the couples’ daughter had submitted a “statement” to be considered by Judge Linda Black and the girl herself attended the hearing in person for the first time.
She had made a brief appearance at the court during the trial as she was called to give evidence but reneged after a panic attack.
Much was made at that time about her tiny stature and immature outfit but on Thursday the girl was dressed in skinny jeans and a shirt and stood smiling with her hair loose, waiting to enter the courtroom.
Part way through the legal submissions, however, where lawyers for both sides discuss elements of the offending that they believe should be considered during sentencing, the girl tearfully fled the courtroom.
Black later reprimanded the media for “chasing” the girl up the street with cameras trying to take her photo.
The girl was 14 when this photo was taken.
The girl also complained about media coverage of the case in her statement to the court, claiming that she formerly “lived a quiet life like everyone else” but that now “this case will haunt me forever”.
She also told the court she blamed herself for the charges being brought against her parents, stating that what she ate was her choice.
But Black told her parents’ lawyers that while she would take the girl’s letter into consideration when handing down her sentence on Friday, she would also be considering the possibility that the girl was unable to understand that she had been offended against due to her isolated childhood.
The girl was hospitalised after the Department of Communities investigated concerns from a dance studio.
“The jury’s verdict meant that [the girl] had been infantilised and had been constrained in her appropriate social development and in those circumstances the evidence from trial means I must have regard to that when I consider her capacity to grasp what has happened to her in her early years,” she said.
Lawyer Oliver Paxman argued the girl was capable of understanding the situation as she had now been granted power of attorney over her parents’ estate while they were in prison and was still teaching piano.
Full details of the statement were not aired in court, but Winter submitted a letter she had received from the girl last year in which she asked for the charges against her parents to be dropped.
“It is quite clear from the letters that she does not believe she has been offended against in any way,” Winter said.
“She does not blame her parents at all … she says she is not a victim of her parents.”
Both parents are psychologically evaluated
It was also revealed on Thursday that both parents had been evaluated by a psychologist in the lead up to being sentenced this week.
The court was told that Dr Philip Watts had diagnosed the girl’s mother with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and confirmed the father’s former diagnosis of OCD, which their lawyers argued is what led to them neglecting their daughter.
When asked how OCD would impact the father’s ability to take his daughter to seek medical help in the face of pressure from multiple outside sources, his lawyer responded: “germs.”
Paxman also told the court that OCD impacted the dad’s judgement because of his structured and rigid lifestyle “and the anxiety that comes with that”.
“I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how OCD makes you disinclined to listen to medical advice,” Black asked.
“People interfering with his routine. That caused him a great deal of anxiety,” Paxman responded.
“I don’t see that an OCD person has a mental condition that impairs their ability to listen to sound advice from others,” Black later responded.
The mother’s lawyer also tried to persuade Black that his client’s “long term” and “severe” OCD was the reason of her offending.
He read from Dr Watts’ psychological report, stating that “[the woman’s] mental illness, whilst present from mid primary school through to adult life, had a direct impact on the way she parented [her daughter].”
Black asked why, if she had suffered with the condition for so long, she had not sought treatment sooner and questioned the validity of the diagnosis given the psychological report was based on “self-reporting” by the woman and no formal testing.
“At the moment, I have doubts about the severity of the OCD such that it would be causatively connected to the offending that would reduce her moral culpability,” Black said.
Her lawyer, Michael Perrella, also told the court the mother had struggled with being in prison and had self-harmed.
The pair will be sentenced on Friday.