A wealthy Perth western suburbs mother has her bid for freedom dashed after she was jailed in January for recklessly neglecting her ‘skeletal’ teenage daughter.
The 48-year-old Floreat woman was jailed for five years in January after being found guilty in the Perth District Court of neglecting the 17-year-old who weighed just 27.3kg, by failing to provide adequate nutrition, medical care, and emotional support.
The girl’s father was jailed six years for his role which included forging his daughter’s birth certificate to make it appear she was younger than she was.
Doctors had warned the emaciated teenager, who was an aspiring ballerina, could have died without urgent medical care.
Both parents, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appealed their sentences and their cases are set to be heard in the WA Supreme Court next year.
The mother made an unsuccessful bid for bail while awaiting the appeal, but this was denied by the court this week. ABC News reported the mother claimed ‘a miscarriage of justice’ because Judge Linda Black did not adjourn her trial when she was sick.
Judge Black allowed the mother to watch the trial in a remote room through a video link after she was unable to attend court for several days because of a stomach illness a doctor said may be contagious.
In the Court of Appeal this week Justice Robert Mazza dismissed the bail application, saying there was nothing before the court that showed the mother was prejudiced in the trial or that her short periods of inattention would have affected the outcome.
Judge 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 raised concerns about the girl’s weight with her mother, the mother was ‘adamant’ her daughter was ‘completely fine’, a previous court hearing heard.
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’.
After dance teachers and the parents of fellow students lodged complaints with Western Australia’s Department of Communities, it opened an active investigation in late 2020.
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.
The girl presented the hospital severely malnourished on April 7, 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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 hospitalized despite your protests she was watching Tellytubbies… Thomas the Tank Engine and having princess birthday parties,’ Judge Black said.
During the case the daughter begged the court not to jail her parents because she would ‘end up homeless’, and claimed she was responsible for the position they were in.
I’m becoming stressed, anxious and worried about the possibility of my parents going to prison,’ she wrote.
‘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.’
