Page 306 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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taking advantage of this vulnerable young person again and again. The other perpetrator fought the charges and showed no insight or remorse. In sentencing him, Justice Mossop described the sex for drugs relationship he had with the girl as the gross exploitation of a vulnerable child by a much older man. It is on the public record that this victim was a young person in foster care. The girl told police the offender did not ask much about her life but, “He knew old I was and that I was in foster care.”
The prosecution in this case also relied on evidence from the girl’s foster mother. I publicly extend my thanks, and I am sure that of the Canberra community, to this remarkable woman who has walked beside an extremely troubled young person and helped put a predator in jail.
The details of these cases are deeply disturbing. The sexual exploitation of young people is not something we would like to believe happens in our community. We want to see that it is the stuff of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, not ACT Policing. But ACT Policing’s sexual assault and child abuse team, SACAT, exists for a reason.
We have spoken many times in this place about institutional child sexual abuse, family violence and sexual assaults. It is time to acknowledge the very difficult work our agencies and non-government partners do in wrapping around girls who are being sexually exploited and who are unfortunately making very poor decisions about their own lives. The circumstances of these young people are extremely complex, often let down by adults in the past, disengaged from school, dulling their pain and trauma with drugs and alcohol and, yes, trading sex for drugs.
What I have been amazed about is the way services wrap around these young people and stick with them to get them through to a safer place. The relationship between SACAT and CYPS is a strong one, guided by a common purpose of working to keep children and young people in our community safe and ensuring that those who perpetrate these acts and offences are unable to do so again.
In these matters, significant coordination of information and resources occurred. At the first instance that the information available indicated that this sexual exploitation was occurring, executives in child and youth protection services convened a high-level meeting that included SACAT, Housing ACT, the Chief Medical Officer, family and community services and ACT Together. A plan was implemented immediately that sought to provide safety to the young people involved and actively disrupt the exploitation that was occurring, using every means available.
A review of all information held by child and youth protection services occurred, mapping the perpetrators’ known contacts within the community and providing a chronology of contact between them and the young people. This information was provided to SACAT to inform their early inquiries. ACT Health worked with the young people to ensure that they were provided with sexual health information and care.
Importantly, child and youth protection services, SACAT, ACT Policing and ACT Together, including the foster carer, continued to provide support to the young people and actively disrupted these exploitative so-called relationships while the
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