Official baby-killers again

This story from Australia. Another baby is dead and nobody will be penalized. Social workers treat drug addicts as sacred. They mainly take kids off normal families

An Aboriginal baby who died lying on a filthy mattress between her passed-out mother and father could be alive today if Western Australia's Department of Community Development had intervened to take her away from her alcoholic parents. Handing down his finding on baby Sturt's death in the northern West Australian town of Kununurra in July 2005, state Coroner Alastair Hope said the embattled department's handling of her case was seriously inadequate and deficient.

The five-month-old, who had been neglected her whole life, died in the early hours of Saturday, July 2, 2005. Western Australia's chief pathologist, Karin Margolius, said the baby had the worst case of nappy rash she had seen. The condition was so severe her skin was peeling off and she had ulcers on her bottom and a rash extending to her waist. The baby also had multiple areas of rash on her face and ears and areas of depigmentation on her forehead, nose, cheek and neck that were a result of sweat and other body products not being wiped off. "This was one of the saddest cases to come before the Coroners Court because it appeared that the baby had died in circumstances of extreme neglect," Mr Hope said in his findings.

The Coroner criticised the DCD for ignoring several attempts by baby Sturt's extended family to have her removed from her mother, Elizabeth Carlton. On May 6, 2005, family members attended DCD offices in Kununurra and "effectively begged the department to intervene to save the child", he said. The family was told arrangements would be made for another meeting the following Monday but the meeting never eventuated and baby Sturt and her mother were never seen by DCD officers.

"In my view, DCD's handling of the case, particularly after the meeting of May 6, 2005, with family members, was seriously deficient," Mr Hope said. "The concern of family members was that the mother of the deceased was an alcoholic and, when drinking, was incapable of looking after her very young baby. The department did nothing to address this very real issue and the case was allocated, first, to an unpaid student and a field worker who was never advised that the case had been allocated to her and then was transferred to a new employee who had not yet received the training provided by the department to new workers."

Mr Hope backed the investigating police officer's statement that baby Sturt would have been alive today if the DCD had acted on May 6 -- eight weeks before her death. He said it was particularly alarming that there was a reluctance by DCD to intervene to save Aboriginal children at risk. The Coroner also criticised the DCD for its lack of co-operation with police investigating the death.

The DCD welcomed the Coroner's report, saying it identified work practices and processes the department needed to improve. Executive director of statewide services Judy Hogben said the department had taken steps to tighten operations and implement more rigorous systems to identify and monitor children at risk since baby Sturt's death.

Report here




(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)