Charges have been laid against a couple who are alleged to have held a teenage girl captive in the bedroom of their suburban home for two years, police reported on Sunday.
The 17-year-old girl was reported to have been in a severely emaciated condition when she eventually walked into a police station in the Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields on April 17.
She had escaped through a window and because of her weakened condition it took her more than an hour to make what should have been a 10-minute trip to the police station, the Sun-Herald reported on Sunday.
The girl’s mother, a 40-year-old woman from Macquarie Fields, and stepfather, who is 51, have been charged with false imprisonment, a police representative said.
Police have not released the names of the girl or her parents.
The paper said the girl had vanished about two years earlier and neighbours were told only that she had gone away.
Neighbours had made several calls to the Department of Community Services (DOCS) about the girl and were unsatisfied with the response they received from officials.
New South Wales state Community Services Minister Carmel Tebbutt said the case was being investigated.
”If there are allegations of notifications to the DOCS that
weren’t followed up, then I’m going to refer it to the
director-general of DOCS for examination,” she said.
”It’s a very disturbing case and obviously I want to find out how someone can allegedly be locked up and disappear for two years.”
DOCS said it had received no reports during the time the girl was imprisoned, but had earlier received two notifications, one in June 1998 and the other in October 1999.
Officers had attended on both occasions but neither complaint had been substantiated after the girl was seen and spoken to, a DOCS representative said.
The next notification DOCS received was from police in April this year when the girl turned up at Macquarie Fields police station.
”Since that time she’s been provided with additional support, such as schooling and medical support,” the representative said.
The girl had since turned 18, is no longer in departmental care and is now believed to be living with relatives.
A neighbour told the paper the girl had been fed on Weet-Bix with vinegar and water mixed with salt, as well as plain bread.
The girl barely weighed 40 kilograms when she
escaped, the report said. – Sapa-AFP