The child safety team responsible for a teenage boy who died while riding in a stolen car in Queensland did not speak to him in the six months before the incident, an inquest has been told.
Warning: This story contains references to alleged child sexual abuse and self-harm.
The 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was killed in a car crash in the early hours of February 14, 2022.
The coronial inquest into his death is examining the appropriateness of child safety support and residential placements, the adequacy of police training and whether officers followed operational policies and procedures.
On Monday a supervisor from the Cairns branch of the Department of Child Safety was asked why the safety officer assigned to the boy had not spoken to him after August 2021.
Police tried unsuccessfully to stop the car as it travelled along Pease Street. (Google Street View)
The supervisor said she was not aware that was the case and was under the impression more regular conversations had been taking place.
The boy had also been placed in a “high-intensity team” with a worker who had fewer children to manage.
But the court was told the officer relied on a social worker, whose employment was outsourced by the department, to maintain contact with the boy.
When asked whether that was appropriate for the officer employed by the department the supervisor said, “I would have hoped that she would have made attempts”.
Push for guardianship
The court was told the boy was 10 when his mother took her own life and that his father died of a drug overdose three years later.
The boy’s aunt and uncle, who gave evidence separately on Friday, told the inquest they were in the process of trying to secure guardianship of the boy.
But they said there was a lack of communication and support from Department of Child Safety staff and confusion about the process.
They also said they had concerns for the teenager’s safety and mental health while he was in care because he had called them multiple times while in a state of distress.
His aunt said she did not hear back from Cairns social workers after sending them police-check documentation as part of the application for the boy to live in her care.
“My phone calls and messages weren’t really answered,” she said.
‘It breaks my heart’
The woman also addressed earlier testimony from another witness that it took nine attempts for a child to see a psychologist, but he only went once.
“What about attempt 12 and 15 and 17? What about those attempts?” she said.
The boy had been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was suspected to have had post-traumatic stress disorder and autism spectrum disorder.
“We cannot give up on vulnerable youth and people with disabilities … those disabilities were going to affect his decision-making for the rest of his life — forever,” she said.
“It breaks my heart that the system is putting a number on how often we help someone.“
The boy’s uncle said he travelled to Cairns multiple times after his brother’s death and he had meetings with the boy, social workers and police.
Under questioning he told the court the child made allegations that he had been sexually abused while in care.
“He rang me about two o’clock in the morning, crying, that things were happening to him,” he said.
The uncle told the court he and the boy’s father were sexually abused while in care, which the boy was aware of.
“He basically came and said, ‘You know what you and dad talked about, what happened to you when you were in the homes? it’s happening to me,'” he said.
The uncle told the court he then flew to Cairns and took the boy to lodge a complaint with police, but the child he did not want to pursue the matter and it was dropped.
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