Two Australian parents were jailed for neglect after they were found to have starved their teenage daughter until she was just 60 pounds (27.3 kilograms), which is about the size of a small child.
The unidentified parents in their mid-40s were sentenced last month in Perth’s District Court of Western Australia.
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They each got sentenced to several years
The father received six and a half years in prison, while the mother only received five years on account of “personal circumstances”, according to CNN.
The news outlet also reports that the court heard from witnesses that despite being a teenager, the girl was treated by her parents like a small child. They did things like take her to the bathroom, blow her nose for her, and make her watch children’s cartoons.
Her father forged her age
The girl’s father pleaded guilty to forging her birth certificate to make her out to be two years younger than she actually is, but both parents denied all other charges.
According to Judge Linda Black ruling over the case, the family’s house didn’t have anything ‘remotely age-appropriate’ for the girl.
The girl was home-schooled but went to ballet
The girl was home-schooled but her parents took her to ballet lessons where her teachers were the first to take her to see a doctor.
“This is not a case about a malnourished ballerina,” the judge said as she spoke to the parents. “You isolated your daughter, you prevented her from growing up, you prevented her from developing in the way she was entitled to.”
“You did keep her as a little girl long beyond the age where she should have been.”
The doctor found ‘no signs of puberty’
When her ballet teachers took her to see a doctor, they found that she had ‘dry and flaking’ skin, ‘brittle and thin’ hair, and ‘was exhibiting no signs of puberty’.
The girl was placed in state custody when her parents refused to let doctors insert a nasal tube to feed her. She later gained weight after they were no longer able to stop her from eating.
The father said she was a ‘fussy eater’
The father’s legal representative told CNN that the girl was a ‘fussy eater’, claiming, “This was never a case about withholding food from a child.”
“My client didn’t starve his kid … He never withheld food from her. He loved and spoiled his daughter. She was free to eat as much as she wanted. This case was about inadequate nutrition from a vegan diet.”
His legal representative claimed it was veganism
“Every parent on this planet knows that if you don’t give a child enough food they will starve. But what if your kid chooses to be vegan?” his legal representative continued.
The court heard that the girl had gone vegetarian at the age of eight and later became vegan as a teenager. Her parents claimed she had three meals a day and they didn’t think she was malnourished.
The girl had sent a letter to the judge
Judge Black said “a cascading series of lies” to cover up the girl’s actual age showed failure of the parents to show love to their daughter.
According to CNN, the teenager had written a letter to the judge asking that they stop the prosecution of her parents, writing: “I’m fully dependent on my parents.”
