A heroin-addicted sex offender in Australia has won custody of his young daughter because the girl's mother is considered an even more unsuitable parent. Child protection campaigners yesterday lashed the Federal Magistrates' Court decision to leave the girl in such conditions as outrageous and "defying logic". Granting custody of the girl, aged about 5, to the father, the court branded the mother dishonest and criticised her continuing drug use.
The court heard the mother, who has shoplifting and prostitution-related convictions and a history of drug use, left the labour ward to buy heroin soon after giving birth. The father, who also has a string of convictions, was put on the sex offenders' list after being convicted of wilful and obscene exposure. The girl, who has behavioural problems and a speech impediment, has suffered serious injuries.
Her plight was reported to the Department of Human Services last year after she was treated for a serious burn to her buttocks. Each parent blamed the other for it. The girl also had injuries from a dog bite and once suffered an injury from being hit with a shoe. The couple separated soon after the birth, and the father is reported to have been violent to the mother.
But, despite concerns he had taken drugs as recently as last December, and kept a knife and sword collection, the court last month ruled the girl should live with him. "The father provides calmer parenting with more clearly set boundaries than the mother does," the magistrate said. "A history of inadequate supervision combined with heroin and marijuana use create a serious concern that (the girl) may be neglected by her mother." The girl will spend two out of three weekends with her mother.
9 comments:
Sex offender. A word that brings to mind child pornographers and serial rapists. And then you learn this sex offender was probably just seen naked out in the public. But jaywalkers, like murderers, are after all criminals.
Yeah, he was probably jerking it in a park or something.
Don't they have a foster care system in Australia?
I agree, it is slightly misleading at the start but the fact that he is a drug addict and in a relationship with another drug addict, i think the 'wilful and obscene exposure' is not as innocent as it could be.
I feel most sorry for the girl, she is to grow up with parents with the worst of role models and not offering the girl the best life possible.
Don't get me wrong, I totally condemn both parents :)
It's just that they make this sex offender stuff pretty much the main point against the father, while I personally can't imagine how indicently one could possibly need to expose oneself to become a worse parent than an abusive heroin addict.
Yep...we drink Fosters and don't care!
haha yeah, im sure they could have just said '<span>abusive heroin addict.' to seal the deal.</span>
As a corrections officer who sometimes works in the Sex Offender dorm, "indecent exposure" isn't just for flashers ("Tee hee hee! See my bits!") or somebody caught peeing in public.
It usually means the offender shoved his/her junk in a kids face and demanded the child look at or touch it. Basically, everything short of penetration.
I hope this poor child gets kidnapped by people far more decent that her parents, and whisked away somewhere so she can have a happy childhood, but that's not likely, is it?
"Usually"? That seems a little hard to believe. In any case, you aren't denying he could have been just caught peeing in the public, which was at least my point.
Post a Comment