Perth parents found guilty of starving malnourished teenage daughter

By David Weber, ABC

Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.

The parents of a malnourished Perth teenager who doctors warned would die without urgent medical intervention have been found guilty of starving her.

The parents were accused of failing to provide adequate nutrition to their 16-year-old daughter who only weighed 27 kilograms in 2021.

They’ve each been found guilty of engaging in conduct that caused their child to suffer, by failing to provide adequate nutrition.

They’ve also each been found guilty of a second charge, relating to their failure to provide emotional, social and functional development.

The father earlier pleaded guilty to forging his daughter’s birth certificate to make her appear younger than she really was.

The court was told the girl was taken into state care when her parents refused to allow her to be tube fed at Perth Children’s Hospital, despite her dangerously low weight.

In her closing submissions, prosecutor Jehna Winter said the parents had failed to ensure their daughter had adequate nutrition, describing her appearance as “extreme”.

Her growth had been stunted and although aged nearly 17, she hadn’t started puberty, the trial heard.

‘Love is not enough’

Winter said while the parents “clearly loved” their daughter, they had infantilised her, making her into a Peter Pan-esque character, in reference to the book and Disney film about a boy who refused to grow up.

“Love is not always enough,” Winter told the jury.

She said the girl had been at risk of cardiac arrest without medical attention and the parents had to be told to take her to a doctor.

Yet “they continued to dispute what they were being told,” Winter said, making excuses for their daughter’s appearance.

Medical staff at the hospital found the teenager had severe emotional and functional developmental delay and a lack of independence, putting her “at risk of exploitation and abuse in her future”.

Treated like a little girl

Staff had reported that her mother helped her with basic self-care tasks, including toileting and brushing her hair, and she sat on her mother’s lap to have stories suitable for pre-schoolers read to her.

They continued to treat and dress her like the “little girl” they wanted her to remain, Winter told the jury.

The girl had been homeschooled, and her parents had limited her interactions with other people, Winter said.

Even her ballet classes – which the court was told comprised her only social interactions outside the home – were taken with girls up to three years younger than she was, because the parents had told lies about her age and date of birth.

Parents thought she had a great diet

The mother’s lawyer Michael Perrella told the jury the case was not about whether the girl was malnourished, but about his client’s state of mind.

He said the mother believed her daughter was “adequately nourished” and didn’t think she needed medical attention.

Short stature ran in the family, and the mother had once been told by a doctor that being small didn’t mean being malnourished, he said.

The father’s lawyer Oliver Paxman said the girl was “absolutely doted on by her parents”.

“Yet, according to the state, she was a neglected child,” he told the jury.

Paxman zeroed in on attempts by the parents to bring food to PCH for their daughter, including a wrap and a vegan bar, because they felt the hospital food was “too processed”.

“Whatever they did it was going to be reported as wrong,” Paxman said.

On claims that she only read books for younger children when in hospital, Paxman suggested that was the nature of the library at PCH.

“I doubt whether there were any Stephen King books in there,” he told the jury.

Bail refused

The girl had been due to give evidence in defence of her parents during the trial, but that plan was abandoned at the last minute, after she had already arrived at court.

Judge Linda Black refused bail, saying there was a “risk of further harm” to the daughter.

She said she couldn’t accept that the mother had considered the best interests of her daughter, pointing specifically to her decision to call her as a witness.

Judge Black said she had “never ever come across a case” where a person charged with abusing a child had called the alleged victim to give evidence.

The mother wept before the jury came into the courtroom, and became highly emotional as the verdicts were read out.

The jury took just a few hours to reach the verdict, following a trial that lasted four weeks.

The judge thanked the jury for their service, saying the evidence was “harrowing” and “difficult”.

The couple will be sentenced in January.

– ABC