Another huge failure of government "child protection"

The bureaucrats responsible should be held to account

A FATHER has been ordered to pay his eight-year-old young daughter $32,250 in compensation for horrific injuries he inflicted upon her within weeks of her birth in early 2002.

Brisbane District Court Nick Samios, in a judgment just published ordered the father-of-three, now aged 42, to pay his youngest child criminal compensation for injuries caused within six weeks of her birth in late January 2002.

In August 2004, Judge Helen O'Sullivan condemned child-protection agencies for placing the newborn girl in her father's care just eight months after he received a suspended jail term for abusing his seven-week-old son.

The Courier-Mail at the time also revealed the father, then aged 36, allowed his wife to spend almost a year in jail after she agreed to take the blame for his almost-fatal attack on their son in September 2000.

Prosecutors said the attack was only revealed after his wife gave birth to their daughter in prison in January 2002, and he inflicted horrific injuries on the baby when authorities placed her in his care.

A routine community health check of the six-week-old girl found multiple fractures to her ribs and skull.

The dad later confessed to police that not only had he inflicted the injuries on his daughter, he also admitted bashing his son and letting his wife take the blame for the attack.

Judge O'Sullivan, who has since retired, said it was hard to believe authorities had not acted earlier to remove both children from the couple's care. "How on earth did this terrible situation arise . . . (that) these children were put within a bull's roar of these people?" the judge said. "These children . . . were not cared for properly by anyone; not you, not your wife, her mother, family services or the police. They suffered terrible injuries."

The man, who cannot be named because the children are in care, was jailed on August 17, 2004, for 10 years after he pleaded guilty to four counts of assault causing bodily harm, and one each of grievous bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In July 2001, Judge Brian Boulton sentenced the man to an 18-month wholly suspended jail term when he pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to provide the necessities of life to his son. Judge Boulton also jailed his wife, then aged 36, for six years when she pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.

The court was told the son had 11 fractured ribs, eye damage, two skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken legs, a fractured elbow and extensive bruising in two attacks.

The woman had her conviction quashed after her husband confessed to police and was freed after serving 11 months.

Judge Nick Samios, in a five-page criminal compensation decision published on Friday, said the man's daughter, now aged eight, should be compensated for the injuries and mental or nervous shock. "I order the (father) pay (his daughter) the sum of $32,250," Judge Samios said. "I regard that the (child) did nothing directly or indirectly to contribute to her injuries."

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