Despite being exposed to drug abuse and domestic violence, authorities allowed a six-year-old girl who died from suspected malnutrition to remain at home, according to court records.
Early on Friday morning, Charlie was discovered unresponsive at her family’s housing commission residence in Munno Para, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
Her terrible death at the house, which is littered with old toys, boxes, a tent, and electric appliances, prompted a massive crimes investigation by the police, and her mother is being looked into for criminal abuse while her five siblings are placed in state custody.
However, court records reveal that at least three government organisations, including the Department of Child Protection, were previously aware of the family.
Charlie and her brothers witnessed their “drug-fueled” father stab their mother many times, including in the neck, in their house in January of last year.
Authorities did not take the kids away, despite the fact that they had seen the horrible attack and that their father had a history of using drugs and domestic violence.
When asked how her mother was feeling by the media outside the house on Tuesday, Charlie’s aunt — who was donning a pink hoodie with the slogan “but did you die? #mumlife” — became angry and yelled at the reporters.
What do you believe her feelings are? In her arms, her daughter just passed away! She is obviously upset.
One neighbour, Bec, told Daily Mail Australia that she did everything within her power to try and save Charlie’s life after the girl’s mother had raised the alarm late at night.
We were going to turn in for the night at one in the morning when we heard this beating on the door.
We hurried over to where Charlie’s mother was yelling, “Charlie isn’t breathing!”
She was paper white and lying on the floor wearing only a diaper. When I touched her, she was ice cold and had her eyes open and fixed on the ceiling.
“We tried everything to get Charlie to breathe,” the group said.
Charlie’s sister, Bec, made a valiant effort to revive him.
They discovered the girl had something in her mouth when they turned her onto her side.
Before flipping her onto her back and resuming CPR, they desperately sought to open her airway.
Soon after, paramedics arrived and spent thirty minutes treating Charlie.
To insert a breathing tube down her throat, they attempted to clean her windpipe.
After a lot of suction, the paramedics were able to insert the breathing tube, but even after they were able to get air into her lungs, her heart refused to beat.
“They declared her dead in the hospital, but she had passed away earlier.”
The mother of five claimed that she will never forget the vision of Charlie dying on the floor while still wearing a diaper, his body paper-white and ice-cold.
The siblings of Charlie were kept away from the awful scene by Bec and her sister. Concerned about what was happening to their sister, they were inconsolable.
When questioned about the cause of death, Bec replied that she wasn’t sure if she had choked to death or if there were health problems that nobody was aware of.
She did remark that Charlie had not been seen for a few weeks before to her passing due to an unknown ailment.
She added that the girl’s siblings never appeared to be in good health. They frequently got head lice, and Bec did her best to assist.
She started coming over less frequently after a while, and eventually she was forbidden from coming over to play with my two-year-old daughter and she was forbidden from leaving the house, Bec recalled.
Charlie used to play with other kids in the neighbourhood who also claimed they didn’t see her as she got older.
Bec recalled Charlie as a quiet, “lovely” girl who always had a smile on her face and carried a pink teddy bear.
She used to accompany Charlie’s beloved Bec’s toddler as they rode about the yard on a small child’s bike.
Bec claimed that Charlie had been let down by the “system” and criticised the Department of Child Protection for not doing enough to save her.
Before Charlie was even taken to the hospital, paramedics were so worried that they called the police, according to officials.
Police were also called to the house 18 months prior after Charlie’s father, who had been using methylamphetamine at the time, had attacked Charlie’s mother, who had been his partner for 18 years, during a disagreement.
He had used the drug regularly for many years prior to the attack, but had recently stopped using it. The court learned this during the sentencing hearing in February.
The mother was stabbed three times in the front yard after the fight began in the bedroom.
A prosecutor informed the District Court that “it (the attack) occurred in front of the house and was witnessed by at least one civilian, who had to pull the defendant away from the victim not once, but twice.”
“There can be no doubt that much more dire consequences could have ensued had he not been pulled away.”
Despite being stabbed, the mother wanted to get back with her partner, the prosecutor told the court.
The prosecutor stated, “I think it’s fair to say the victim is probably lacking in insight into the preservation of her own safety.”
“I can tell you that the Department of Child Protection has an interest in this matter, and I would certainly anticipate the department getting involved again should the defendant return to that home,” she said.
The father initially faced an attempted murder charge before pleading guilty to the lesser charge of intentionally causing harm.
He was given a five-year, six-month sentence in March of this year, with a three-year, six-month non-parole period.
He received a sentence for aggravated assault for striking the same victim in the face four years prior.
Investigators will now look into any more interactions they had with the family in the years preceding Charlie’s passing.
Uncle of Charlie, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, expressed shock at what had occurred.
It’s f***ed, he declared. “I didn’t learn on Friday; I learned that she passed away on Monday.”
The six-year-living old’s circumstances, according to SA Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams, were “poor,” and it was too soon to say whether or not her death could have been avoided.
She was unable to confirm Charlie’s most recent whereabouts or even whether he had gone to school.
To look into the circumstances surrounding her death and to form a special taskforce, click here.
Her five siblings who reside in the same home are the subject of an investigation by Task Force Prime into potential criminal neglect allegations.
They have all been taken out of the house and are now under the state’s Department for Child Protection’s supervision.
The interactions between Charlie’s family and the state’s human services, child protection, education, and housing agencies would be the subject of a government review, according to acting premier Susan Close.
Which services were used, how they collaborated, how effective they were, and what adjustments might be needed will be decided by the chief executive of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Katrine Hildyard, the minister responsible for child protection, expressed her condolences to Charlie’s family and described the situation as “absolutely tragic and heartbreaking.”