Two cases reported in today's news of extreme child abuse.
In Sydney we have the case of a mother and stepfather torturing their two boys, aged 8 & 10 with a hammer and gas torch, amongst other items. They have now been removed from the home along with their 5 month old brother.
Hopefully the genetic father of the two older boys will be able to care for them.
The second of today's reported cases of abuse was in Adelaide where another couple have been charged with failing to feed their 4 year old son over a 13 day period. The boy was left locked in his room throughout.
"A separate charge of criminal neglect was dropped by the prosecution."
Why? Clearly the boy, who weighed only 10 kg., when removed from the 'home' had been criminally neglected.
"The man told officers he had a three-month-old child taken away from him by authorities in another state previously, and felt a repeat of that might have been avoided if he had family or friends to support him in South Australia."
Weakest excuse imaginable. The father was too 'busy' drinking vodka.
"The man described how he and his partner would lock the four-year-old in his bedroom each night because they feared he would flee.
But in October 2013, the boy was left in the room for 13 days, wearing the same nappy, and only given sachets of yoghurt and jelly on paper plates, slid under the door.
"We actually fed him pretty much every day, in that room, by sliding, sliding the plates under there, so as far as we could hear, he was happy," he said."
Appalling and both cases follow last week's case in Central West NSW where a man by the name of Toohey was arrested for the murder of his fiance's baby girl, while she was in hospital.
Mention is also made of a 7 year old boy's death last November in which the mother and her boyfriend claimed he had fallen from a pogo stick, when in fact he was murdered.
Maybe it is time for the government to publicise a parent's right to give up their child (hopefully young enough for adoption) and to offer more assistance for those who feel they are not coping...before the child becomes irreparably damaged.
