Tiahleigh Palmer’s grandmother has claimed the schoolgirl had the opportunity to leave her foster home but chose to stay because she had a ‘crush’ on her  foster brother.

Grandmother, Sue Palmer, 65, who cared for Tiahleigh until she was 10, said the 12-year-old was invited to return to her mother’s home in the months before her death but she refused.

‘She said she wanted to stay [at the farm] because of the boy and because she loved the horses on the property that they have there,’ Ms Palmer told The Courier Mail.

Ms Palmer said the family were not aware of the alleged incest RAPE from her foster brother, but knew she had a ‘crush’.

On Wednesday, the court heard her foster brother Trent Thorburn, 19, allegedly admitted to a cousin via Facebook he had incestuous sex RAPED Tiahleigh and feared he impregnated her two days before she vanished from Marsden State School on October 28. It is believed she was smothered the night before she was reported missing.

On Wednesday, the court heard Tiahleigh told her foster parents Trent Thorburn had been sexually assaulting her when they two were alone.

Trent has been charged with incest, perjury and perverting the course of justice, while his father, 56, has been charged with murder and interfering with a corpse.

The court also heard Tiahleigh had told a friend that she went to her foster mother Julene Thorburn, 53, to report the sexual abuse, the Australian reported.

‘The victim had disclosed to her that when her foster carer went out, their son would then have sex with her,’ police prosecutor Ellen French told the court.

‘She further said that the victim claimed to have disclosed this to her foster mother.’

Tiahleigh’s foster father, 56, was due to appear in the same court on Wednesday but was in an induced coma in hospital after a suspected self-harm attempt while in custody.

Queensland police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia Thorburn was still in the medically induced coma on Thursday afternoon and in a stable condition.

There was NO “relationship”

Using the term “relationship” when it comes to the acts of this foster brother crosses the line, statutory rape is sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age required to legally consent to the behaviour. She was only 12. There was no “relationship” here.

Jane Gilmore said it in one little paragraph, “Murder is not protection. Abuse is not a relationship. Rape is not sex.

Jane writes, With a single headline, The Daily Mail turns an alleged child murderer into a loving father protecting his son, and an alleged child abuser into a romantic lover.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR MEN’S VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Killing to “protect” someone is self defence, killing a child to cover up your son’s crime is murder.

Rape is not sex.

Abuse is not a relationship.”

Previous updates on this story can be found below.

• Tiahleigh Palmer’s mum tells how she lost her daughter to foster care
• Foster family face murder and incest charges over Tiahleigh Palmer

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