The parents of a young Australian woman from the Perth area are on trial for forcing their daughter onto such a strict diet that she risked fractures simply by jumping. The 17-year-old weighed just 28 kg.
The case first came to light, according to the Daily Mail, when the girl's ballet teacher became concerned about her pupil's health and decided to speak to the girl's mother, thinking that she was suffering from anorexia. The mother, however, maintained that everything was fine and ignored the warnings.
Social services were then notified in November 2020 and for four months they pursued the family, who insisted that everything was fine with their only child. In the years that followed, the parents were advised to go to the doctor with their daughter to confirm that her health was stable. This advice was postponed several times.
A child protection worker's repeated attempts to have a "malnourished" Floreat teenager medically assessed were ignored by her parents for four months, a court has been told.
The teenager was eventually examined by a GP, with grave concerns over the girl's weight. #9News pic.twitter.com/jCvJfLqriU— 9News Perth (@9NewsPerth) October 25, 2024
The girl, who had never menstruated despite being at puberty, said she regularly ate organic strawberries and pears, soup and ice cream.
When the parents finally consented to take their daughter to Perth Hospital, the doctors diagnosed her with grade 4 malnutrition and ordered X-rays and the placement of a nasogastric tube for five days, before instituting a diet plan. 9 News Perth even reports that the doctors said the young woman was “an urgent medical case”.
In court, it was also heard that the parents tried to change her age in a medical report, claiming that she was 14. The case continues in court.
