The parents of a ‘skeletal’ teenager who doctors warned could have died without urgent medical care have been handed lengthy prison terms.
The pair in their forties, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were convicted during a Perth trial of recklessly neglecting their daughter, now 20, between 2019 and 2021.
This included failing to give the girl, who weighed 27.3 kilograms aged 17 in 2021, adequate nutrition and medical attention, and emotional, social and functional development.
The father, who previously pleaded guilty to forging his daughter’s birth certificate, was sentenced in the WA District Court on Friday to six years and six months behind bars, while the mother was handed a five-year term.
It came as their daughter begged the court not to jail her parents because she would ‘end up homeless’, as she claimed she was responsible for the position they were in.
Judge Linda Black said the girl, who cannot be identified as she was a child when the offending took place, was taken into state care after she was hospitalised in 2021 and her parents repeatedly interfered with the care she was receiving.
The vegan, home-schooled girl underwent intensive dance training, her only social interaction outside of the family home in Perth.
When a ballet teacher at her dance lessons raised concerns about the girl’s weight with her mother, the mother was ‘adamant’ that her daughter was ‘completely fine’, a previous court hearing heard.
The girl (above, at dance class) weighed just 28kg before her 17th birthday and was 147.5cm tall but her parents refused to see she was malnourished and resisted seeing a doctor
The father, who previously pleaded guilty to forging his daughter’s birth certificate, was sentenced in the WA District Court on Friday to six years and six months behind bars, while the mother was handed a five-year term (pictured: the parents outside court at an earlier hearing)
It came as their daughter begged the court not to jail her parents because she would ‘end up homeless’, as she claimed she was responsible for the position they were in (the daughter is pictured in the pink blazer, middle, as she attended court for her parents sentencing on Friday)
She had never menstruated, despite having entered puberty, and the father had assured child protection workers the girl had a ‘fantastic diet’ and was ‘getting stronger’.
He said she had ‘good energy’, was dancing up to eight hours a week, and he had no concerns for her health.
The parents told the GP she typically ate organic pears, organic strawberries, minestrone soup and ice-cream.
The doctor, who later told a child protection worker she was ‘gravely concerned’ about the girl, urged the parents to take her immediately to Perth Children’s Hospital for emergency admission.
After dance teachers and the parents of some fellow students lodged complaints with Western Australia’s Department of Communities, it opened an active investigation in late 2020.
But the court heard the parents repeatedly lied about their daughter’s age and health to concerned community members, medical practitioners and the authorities in the years prior.
‘I simply do not and cannot accept that the two of you needed someone to point out to you that your daughter was starving, that she was fading away,’ Judge Black said.
‘That she was failing to grow, that she was failing to thrive. You engaged in wilful blindness of the most extreme kind.’
The girl was on a strict vegan diet and treated like a child, watched the Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine and was given a Barbie for the 17th birthday when she weighed 28kg
The parents refused to let their daughter have an ECG because it was ‘too intrusive’ and when told the girl was at risk of death or cardiac arrest, the father allegedly laughed off the suggestion.
Judge Black said the girl, who weighed 14kg aged six years and 21kg at age 13, had stunted growth and was underdeveloped for her age, weighing the same as an average nine-year-old when she was 17.
Photos of her were described as showing her ‘skeletal’ body.
‘She was obviously chronically malnourished,’ Judge Black said.
‘Neither of you were starved or malnourished … therefore I can only conclude that you knew how to make sure you had enough food but you failed to do the same for your daughter.’
She said the couple had not let their daughter grow up and develop, partly because the mother feared losing her.
The girl was homeschooled and her parents strictly controlled her movements and social engagements, such as attending dance classes.
Told the child protection investigation would continue unless they took the girl to the hospital, the parents finally did so in April last year.
The girl’s dance teacher said her ‘wafer thin arms’ and tiny body was at risk of stress fractures if she jumped in class and lodged a complaint with WA’s Department of Communities
Perth Children’s Hospital doctors diagnosed the girl with grade 4 malnutrition, and ordered X-rays and a nasogastric feeding tube be inserted for five days before instituting a meal plan.
The Perth court heard the parents opposed the treatment, protesting the girl was naturally slender and had been a premature baby.
The parents – who it was revealed supervised the girl’s toilet visits in hospital – wanted to sleep on the ward near her, but were refused.
During the hospital stay, staff allegedly observed that the girl’s mother set a timer for teeth brushing, and would give her permission to spit.
The girl was legally taken into the care by the WA Department of Communities and the treatment was enforced.
During a 50-day stay in hospital, the girl gained 7kg and grew 3.4cm.
But hospital workers claimed that she had been treated like a small child and that she watched the Wiggles, the Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine, although an assessment of her schoolwork and piano skills showed ‘no cognitive impairment’.
For her 17th birthday in hospital, her parents gave her a Barbie doll and tried to organise a Disney Princess visit.
‘By the time your 17-year-old daughter was hospitalised despite your protests she was watching Tellytubbies… Thomas the Tank Engine and having princess birthday parties,’ Judge Black said.
The parents – who timed the girl brushing her teeth, telling her when to spit – wanted to sleep on the ward at the hospital where she stayed 50 days, put on 7kg and grew 3.4cm
She also said the couple lacked remorse and credibility and were evasive during their lengthy trial, ‘endeavouring to obscure the obvious truth even when it was staring them in the face’.
Despite this, the court heard their daughter had written to the court last year pleading for the prosecution to drop its case against them.
‘I will have nowhere to live and I will end up homeless,’ Judge Black said, reading from the letter.
‘I’m becoming stressed, anxious and worried about the possibility of my parents going to prison.
The girl said she was responsible for the position her parents were in.
‘I love my parents very much. They are the most important people in my life. If my parents go to prison, I don’t think I will be able to cope,’ the letter said.
Judge Black said to the girl’s parents that it was their fault their daughter felt this way.
‘You have created a child who was not able to function as an adult at the age of more than 20 years of age,’ she said.
