Toddlers pushed into arms of an addict
August 4, 2004
A DRUG-USING former prostitute whose toddler daughter almost died of an ecstasy overdose last year should regain custody of her two children, the NSW Department of Community Services has recommended.
The department will ask for the 26-year-old mother to be given full-time custody of the children during an appeal hearing in Campbelltown Children's Court later this month.
This despite the woman being placed on a two-year good behaviour bond by a Local Court magistrate in April after pleading guilty to endangering her then three-year-old daughter's life.
The woman was with her two children and a client at a hotel in Bass Hill in June last year when the young girl swallowed up to five ecstasy tablets hidden inside a Kinder Surprise chocolate.
The mother was charged with neglect after she repeatedly refused to tell police and medical staff what had happened.
Yesterday the father of the young girl, now aged 4, and her three-year-old brother, said he was shocked to receive a call from the Campbelltown DOCS office informing him the department would be recommending his estranged partner be awarded custody.
The two children were placed in foster care after the incident, and in March the Children's Court ordered this care should continue for two years. Both parents have visiting rights.
The father, who can not be named, has lodged an appeal against the decision, which will be heard on August 30.
"This is a sick joke," the father said yesterday. "My daughter almost died because of her. She was in a coma.
"My kids have a loving father who wants to care for them full-time but DOCS have opposed me at every step in favour of a drug-addict and prostitute."
Previous court orders have found against the father's application for custody due to his criminal record, which includes drug offences.
He claims he has reformed. He also claims his former partner is still involved in the sex industry.
The woman's mobile phone was off when The Daily Telegraph tried to contact her several times yesterday.
She has made formal claims of domestic violence against her former partner.
A spokesman for DOCS said the department had no concerns about the woman "in relation to substance abuse."
"DOCS has been working closely with the mother who has met, and continues to meet, rigorous undertakings ordered by the Children's Court for her to have access to the children," he said.
The Daily Telegraph
This report appears on NEWS.com.au.
COMMENTS: see http://www.dadsontheair.com
Just the tip of the iceberg of the "child protection" aiding and abetting neglect and abuse.
Remember, at the moment, every state has a labour government and none of them would be prepared to open the can of worms that a Royal commission would find despite the many reports on who is really neglecting and abusing the children of our once proud nation.
They might actually find out why so many children are being denied contact with their fathers.
Oh, by the way, can you have a guess what it costs to put up an "abused" teenager with the constant company of two child protection workers at the Hilton or other such hotels?
Or, even more interesting, how many times such situations occur?
Think about this next time some father says, in complete surprise, that the police have told him that, if he pursues his runaway daughter, that they will take out an AVO on him.
Missing Person's Week. What a joke. State kidnapping or the State driving a man to where he has to disappear or commit suicide.
Just as much of a joke as the State substituting the New Year's Eve fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day.
J.L.
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"First they came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me." - Martin Niemöller
What happened to "Next of Kin" in these circumstances - whether you have custody or not does not mean you aren't next of kin and direct at that. Unless there are genuine reasons, the father should automatically get the care of the children, particularly if the mother is in custody or in rehab!! Why place the child with a friend instead of a family member at least?
DOCS can be wildly erratic - I have a male friend who's girlfriend's ex husband is a junkie, also a heavy drinker and lives in a pigsty. He said she hit their son, so they took him from his school classroom, (very un-diplomatic and traumatic), and placed him with the father. They didn't tell her he had been taken until the next day, by which time they were frantic with worry.
Both my friend and her are decent, working, non-smokers/drinkers with a nice home and good moral and living standards. They have to pay the junkie child support - it just goes up his arm and the kid lives on pies. Go figure......Mind you this is the only actual instance I've heard of where the shoe is on the other foot.