Re: David and Ewen [2003] NSWSC 279

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Re: David and Ewen [2003] NSWSC 279 HEARING DATE(S) : 28 March 2003 JUDGMENT DATE : 28 March 2003 JURISDICTION: Equity JUDGMENT OF : Campbell J DECISION : Children placed in care temporarily

CATCHWORDS : FAMILY LAW AND CHILD WELFARE - CHILD WELFARE OTHER THAN UNDER FAMILY LAW ACT 1975 AND RELATED ACTS - children in care of State - Court's parens patriae jurisdiction to make order for care of children - effect of earlier decision of Magistrate in Children's Court on same question LEGISLATION CITED : Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 CASES CITED : Re Anna, Bruno, Courtney and Deepak [2001] NSWSC 79 Re Victoria [2002] NSWSC 647 Director General of the Department of Community Services - (P) PARTIES : Mother of children - (D1) Father of children - (D2) FILE NUMBER(S) : SC M W Anderson - (P) COUNSEL : C Sperling, solicitor (D1) K Renshall, solicitor (for children) Crown Solicitor - (P) SOLICITORS : Legal Aid Commission - (D1) Kathryn Renshall - (for children)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES EQUITY DIVISION EQUITY LIST

CAMPBELL J

FRIDAY 28 MARCH 2003

RE: DAVID AND EWEN JUDGMENT – Ex tempore 1 HIS HONOUR: This is an application which is brought urgently by the Director General of the Department of Community Services. It relates to the immediate future care of two boys who I will refer to by pseudonyms as David and Ewen. They are brothers. 2 David was born in November 2001, and so is now sixteen months old. Ewen was born in mid-February 2003 so is only a little over six weeks old. The boys' mother had lived in Queensland until very recently. She came from Queensland when her time for delivery with Ewen was near, partly because her mother lives in Sydney. 3 At the time that Ewen's birth was near, an arrangement was made for David to be placed voluntarily into care. He has been in care in New South Wales from 12 February this year. The precise circumstances of that have changed a little over the time since 12 February. 4 On 17 March 2003 the boys' mother went into the Tresillian home with both boys, and she stayed there with them until 21 March. The reason for her referral was to observe her ability to parent the two children. The objectives that were identified as being the mother's goal in relation to David at the time of entry, were to learn to manage his tantrums, to learn to get into a routine with him and to gain confidence in herself as a mother to him. 5 Concerning Ewen her goals were to get into a good routine, to learn a bit more about bottle-feeding him and to gain confidence in herself as a mother. 6 Over the time she was there there was explanation given as to the detail of both breast feeding and formula making and administration for the new baby. The results of that instruction were not satisfactory. It was observed that on one occasion she took forty minutes to change two Milton tanks which would normally take about ten minutes. It was noted that she needed reminding of the next breast feeding time. She did not master the way of mixing formula and heating it. There were also some problems concerning hygiene and sterilisation of the baby's dummy. 7 At the beginning of the week she was there she needed some direction to check the nappy of the older boy before putting him to bed. She was observed to take a long time to change a nappy and needed assistance and also needed reminding to wash her hands before attending to the baby's dummy replacement. 8 The overall summary of the Tresillian staff was that during her stay the mother required twenty-four hour supervision and support to provide basic parenting care for the two boys. 9 There is in evidence a report which was prepared by a Queensland psychologist on 11 October 2000, concerning the circumstances in which the mother was caring for four other children which she had. Those four children are now being cared for by people other than their mother. The report is quite detailed and provides grounds for concern about her ability to maintain an appropriately clean environment for the children. At that stage those four children were reported to have had head lice for an infinitely long time. The home was reported to have both animal and human faeces throughout. The children were said to be constantly sick, mostly with asthma. In the time since the mother has been in Sydney there has been a recurrence of a problem of head lice, so far as David is concerned.