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A “morbidly obese” young girl, died from an asthma attack following parental neglect.

She had begged authorities to have her “putrid”, rodent-infested home cleaned months before her death.

The girl died a women’s size 18, living off a diet of chicken nuggets and sausages, her aunt admitting to the Daily Telegraph it was “a miracle she made it to the age of 13″.

Relatives have accused the Department of Family and Community Services of putting financial concerns above the child’s welfare, the paper reports.

The department was notified about the potential abuse in the home 19 times – the earliest recorded intervention coming when the girl was just two years old.

The girl, identified only as Elle for legal reasons, was never taken from her parents and interventions were minimal due to “competing priorities” within the agency.

“(FACS) is inadequately funded,” her aunt said.

“Someone will carry out an assessment and a senior manager downgrades it.

“That’s how Elle fell through the net.”

Photos, taken around the time of Elle’s death, show walls eaten away by mice, mould covering the bathroom ceiling and lawns that had grown “waste high”.

The 13-year-old girl who called the sty her home died following an asthma attack on April 26, 2014.

Her parents failed to take Elle to hospital before she died, returning from the pub at 4pm to find her “yelling and crying” for her asthma puffer.

The teen begged her parents to take her to hospital, but her father “simply went back to his garage bed and removed his hearing aids”, documents reveal.

A coronial inquest heard evidence that had the parents taken their daughter to hospital she would likely have survived.

The inquest also found FACS “did not intervene in any meaningful way during” and that Elle’s death was “clearly preventable”.

Opposition spokeswoman on FACS Tania Mihailuk said the girl “was let down by the government’s systemic under-resourcing”.

So horrifying. That poor girl was let down by so many people.

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  • Poor young girl :( RIP Elle. It’s not fair that this happened and no one helped you.

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  • Very sad to hear they were called 19 times and did nothing to help the girl.

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  • What a tragedy – this should not have been allowed to occur.

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  • I know a lady who worked for what was then the Childrens Welfare Dept as a physcologist / social worker. One family didn’t have Ambulance cover or a car so instead of taking the asthmatic child to hospital they would call this lady who go around the corner, she would go around there to make sure she was being told the truth (sometimes she wasn’t), call an ambulance, take the girl in her car head towards the hospital and meet the ambulance on the road heading towards her. She permanently carried first aid equipment in the boot of her car in sterile containers. There was another child whose mother refused to take her child to the end of a small street to kindergarten, so they arranged transport for that. Yet the Govt. supposedly lacks enough staff and budget to follow up a lot of serious cases.

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  • This is so sad beyond words, I have goosebumps. Just not fair and not on!

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  • Seriously. 19 time reported. I’m sick of hearing about our innocent children being let down by our government. Something has to happen before more innocent children die. Poor Elle I hope she finds peace and her parents rot in hell

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  • What a sad story- things like this shouldn’t be happening! We live in Australia and there are so many people out there who would love to have a child but can’t and who would make excellent parents. I wish this little girl could have experienced someone who loved her…

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  • Bureaucratic bullshit to the max!! Disgusting

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  • This is disgusting on so many levels. The neglect by the people referred to as her parents and the Government services. What a horrific way for this young girl to live and die. Just horrendous. She was a human being. No-one should have to live like that in the lucky country. Breaks my heart.

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  • Nothing unusual about bureaucrats passing the buck. So sorry this poor young girl was let down.

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  • This case had been regularly reported to authorities since the girl was 2 and yet she wasn’t removed from her parents care. The government needs to act on this

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  • How horrific !! Elle was truly let down by many people….she must have felled so lonely, so under valued. Awful !
    Very concerning how FACS didn’t respond adequately on the 19 (!!) notifications of potential abuse ! and interventions were minimal due to “competing priorities” within the agency ?! that is just not good enough !!

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  • How inhumane the people who called themselves her ‘parents’, not care enough to seek medical intervention for their child when she begged them and obviously they could clearly see that she was distressed and in need of help. What horrible people, they don’t deserve to be parents and if they have any other children they should be removed from them because they have proven that they were not interested or cared enough about their daughters well-being. So sad and makes me angry.

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  • OMG! that is truly awful. The poor child to be abandoned not just by her parents but the authorities too. Heads should roll over this.


    • There needs to be answers out of respect and for justice for this child and to ensure that a case like this does not occur again.

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  • So tragic. I’m so sorry for what this little girl had to go through. RIP :-(

    Reply

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