A teenager who allegedly raped another teen in the mental health ward of Perth Children’s Hospital crawled behind chairs to the girl’s room before the alleged assault, court documents reveal.
The 13-year-old girl was being treated in the hospital’s mental health ward for trauma from a separate sexual assault when she was allegedly assaulted by the 13-year-old boy in January last year, the ABC initially reported.
The boy was charged with sexual penetration of a child 13 to 16 years and indecent dealing with a child 13 to 16 years.
He was supposed to go on trial last September.
In court documents, prosecutor Brad Hollingsworth alleged CCTV showed the boy crawling to the girl’s room, hiding behind chairs to avoid being seen by cameras or nurses.
According to the documents, it was alleged the boy stayed in the girl’s room for hours and went unchecked by nurses who had not done their rounds because of the boy’s “certain behaviour” earlier in the day and into the night.
The documents say the ward admitted the boy, girl and other children went unsupervised at the time the alleged rape occurred.
The boy later returned to his own room when nurses came around to check, the prosecution said.
Hollingsworth alleged the boy believed the sex was consensual, however the girl alleged it was not consensual.
Hollingsworth also said it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt that the boy had the capacity to know whether it was appropriate for the sexual activity to occur, whether consensual or not.
Hollingsworth said the alleged victim could not face the trial due to the significant stress on her mental health and the risk of self-harm.
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It was also revealed that for the trial to go ahead the Child Witness Service would have arranged for the teenager to go back to the hospital for monitoring before and after she gave evidence.
“The only viable option for the Child Witness Service to ensure that this particular child witness was protected and safe when giving evidence is, effectively, asking her to go back to the place at which this is alleged to have occurred, and simply, that is not viable,” Hollingsworth said.
The prosecution discontinued the charges on the basis that it was unlikely a conviction would be reached and it would be unethical to make the alleged victim testify.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch confirmed the boy had been charged and that police had carried out a full investigation where a brief was passed to the Department of Public Prosecutions.
“My understanding is that it was discontinued for welfare reasons,” Blanch said.
“My number one focus is to bring people to justice, to look after the victim and to make sure our brief of evidence is good enough to put that person away for as long as possible.
He added anyone who heard of this case would “have been appalled and shocked” that it happened to a young person in what is believed to be a “very safe place”.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said yesterday that hospital protocols were not followed.
“I think this patient has been failed and her family was when he hand our children over to the children’s hospital we expect them to be safe,” she said.
Sanderson said a report into the incident was handed down and seven of the 11 recommendations had been put in place.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
