A CHILD who starved to death in her housing commission home at Hawks Nest in NSW just weeks before Christmas in 2007, while her parents were living in thesame house, has been granted a name, despite legislation that normally prohibits the identification of any child victims of crime.

 

 

A CHILD who starved to death in her housing commission home at Hawks Nest in NSW just weeks before Christmas in 2007, while her parents were living in thesame house, has been granted a name, despite legislation that normally prohibits the identification of any child victims of crime.

Supreme Court judge Robert Hume said the seven-year-old girl had been the subject of the most profound neglect and the failure to grant her a name would have served to perpetuate her abandonment.

He allowed the publication of her middle name, Ebony.

The names of her parents remain suppressed to protect the identity of her three siblings. A lawyer representing the siblings and the NSW Department of Community Services, Sue Kluss, claimed publication of her name would be a breach of child protection legislation.

However, Justice Hume said respect for her life meant there was “considerable interest in this poor little girl having some identity assigned to her. She should not simply be some anonymous person”.

He said a pathologist brought to the house at Hawks Nest, in NSW’s Hunter region, had found the child’s body in a state of extreme emaciation, “almost like a mummy”, and the worst case of child malnutrition experts had seen.

“She was found in the most atrocious circumstances,” he said.

“She was the subject of the most profound neglect and abandonment. To my mind, maintaining her anonymity would perpetuate the abandonment.”

Ebony’s mother was this week convicted of her murder and her father of manslaughter. The pair sat expressionless in the dock at the East Maitland Courthouse yesterday as sentencing was set down for August 6. They did not speak to each other.

Justice Hume said Ebony was so malnourished she would have been incapable of movement and was likely to have been in a semi-conscious state for weeks or months at a time.

Medical evidence suggested she was kept in her bedroom for extended periods and had almost never been outside.

While living in Sydney two months before her death, Ebony was left in a room with the window boarded up so she had no view outside. The judge said the child lived in putrid, squalid rooms, pungent with the smell of faeces and urine.

Earlier yesterday, the mother’s barrister, Dennis Stewart, told the court his client was shocked by the guilty verdict and was unable to give evidence on her sentencing submissions.

“She is finding it very difficult to focus,” he said.

NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour said yesterday a detailed report into the family’s dealings with several government agencies had been provided to relevant ministers and departments.

“I will be making a detailed, special report to parliament in relation to this matter once the criminal proceedings, including the sentencing, have been finalised. This will provide information about my findings and recommendations.”

Credit: John Stapleton