Undiagnosed Autistic girl dies of starvation in family home.

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http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/815 ... g-evidence

A NSW couple accused of murdering their seven-year-old daughter must have neglected her for months before her malnourished body was found with "black vomit and bull ants" oozing from her mouth, a jury has heard.

The jury at the NSW Supreme Court murder trial of the girl's parents, which began in East Maitland on Tuesday, was told a medical expert would testify she was the most malnourished child he had seen in his career.

The girl was found dead in a bedroom at her family's Hawks Nest home on November 3, 2007.

Crown Prosecutor Peter Barnett SC said a post-mortem examination showed she was 106cm tall but weighed just 9kg when she died.

She had weighed 20.5kg on February 14, 2006 - the last time she was weighed by a doctor.

"The face was distorted due to muscle wasting and (there was) no fat under the skin," Mr Barnett said.

"The urine smell persisted even after the body was washed with cleaning agents.

"The doctor found the child died of long-lasting starvation and neglect."

Outlining an interview between police and the girl's father, Mr Barnett said the father claimed the mother could not resuscitate the girl because of "black vomit and bull ants coming from her mouth".

But he told police he couldn't believe his daughter was dead because she was so well the night before, Mr Barnett said.

"He denied she was starved and said they 'fed her like anything'," Mr Barnett said.

"He said she wasn't neglected and all their children were looked after like gold."

Mr Barnett said the father also told police his daughter, the youngest of the couple's four children, had been "bubbly, smiling in the last days".

The mother sobbed regularly during the Crown's opening address, her head down and face buried in tissues.

None of the family can be named for legal reasons.

The jury was told a doctor specialising in pediatric malnutrition would give evidence that he had seen more than 500 cases of child malnutrition, but had "never seen one as malnourished as her".

"He said her death must have been due to months of malnutrition," Mr Barnett said.

The family had moved to Hawks Nest from Sydney's Matraville, in 2007, to get away from "the scum" in Sydney, the father allegedly told police.

It is alleged the girl was rarely seen outside either home, with her parents claiming she suffered from autism and a bone development disorder - neither of which was medically verified.

The jury of six men and six women was given copies of photographs contained in a folder of 100 images of the girl and the Hawks Nest house before being directed to retire for the day to study them.

They had earlier been warned some of the photographic evidence may be as confronting as Nazi Germany holocaust images, or those of starving children from third-world African countries.

The trial before Justice Robert Hulme continues on Wednesday.

If her nasty parents didn't want her, they should have put her up for adoption, instead of killing her. Another deceased autistic who will never enjoy the pleasures of life, ever again. Her parents bought too much into the Autism Everyday video that was made by the people at Autism Speaks. We all know what would happen if that stupid organization got it's way.

Her parents COULD have made up that the girl was autistic to justify her being kept at home. It's possible. They were truly evil and would say or do anything to defend themselves.

Yeah, being severely malnourished would certainly cause DD and "bone disease".
Well, what goes around, comes around... here or hereafter they'll get theirs. In spades.

It happened near me too with a diagnosed girl; she was left to fend for herself, and since she had Autism, she couldn't survive (in such a situation, "normal" children become quite ill, so imagine what it's like for a young girl with Autism who can't eat unless food is put in front of her?).

Yeah, like, red hot pocker fire spades, that is.

I wonder if the girl had eating problems so the parents couldn't get her to eat what they were giving her so she starved because the parents didn't know how to feed her. I know lot of autistic kids have eating problems and trying to get them to eat what you make them doesn't work for them like it would with normal kids because normal child eventually eats what you made them because they don't like the hunger in their tummies but an autistic child doesn't give rats so they stay hungry but end up starving themselves by not eating what they don't like so therefore the parents are forced to give them what they rather eat. At least their child has some food instead of none.

The parents should have taken her to a doctor regarding her eating problems and give her therapy for her autism.

It is highly disturbing to me when NTs, and downright poor excuses for human beings regardless, are this cruel.

My ex husband didn't ever understand me. We'd have a little food in the house, he'd eat out twice a day, and then come home and take me out for food, sometimes, if I was "good". Despite having boxes of mac n cheese, ramen, and canned tunafish that my parents bought me, I never really had the willpower to make any of it. I starved, instead, quite literally. The only counter-balance was the horrifically fattening fast food that my ex used to feed me. (And then wonder why we had financial problems, you can't spend $60 a day eating out for one person!) He wondered, if I was hungry, why didn't I just make something? Why buy groceries if I wasn't going to use them?

It is really hard to describe. Food is there, but if it's too much a hassle, I'm not lazy, I just can't mentally justify actually preparing it. I'll eat happily if something's put in front of me, but.. unlocking myself from whatever I'm doing, no, I'd rather keep working on my projects than cook for ME. Now cooking for loved ones? That's completely easy for me. Easy way to make people happy.

Now I keep my OWN home stocked with very easy to prepare, simple things (30 minutes or less), along with a slew of microwaveable things. I find my daughter is absolutely, even at age 1, terrified of starving. (Thank you, ex husband, for starving me while pregnant.) She won't ask for food very often, either, so I just simply offer her food every hour. We go down the list of things to eat, and she is advanced enough to say "yeah" when we find what she's wanting to eat. Who knows if she's NT or not? Does it matter at this point? Babies eat when hungry, even if they don't know how to ask, if PROPER food is put in front of them. My little one eats more than I do, and I feed her as much as she wants to eat. When it starts getting thrown at me and lands on the floor more than anything, sure, I know she's done. But I'll still offer food again in an hour no matter how much she's eaten, she is a baby.

It isn't rocket science. It isn't difficult. If you can't afford to feed a kid, by golly, in the USA, there's WIC and DSHS who will help you. Kids will eat if they are hungry! Even my severely autistic / turners syndrome mosaic little sister will eat food not of her usual "needs" if she's hungry (she eats 11 times a day, I don't think she's been truly hungry in a very long time).

People like the aforementioned couple make me sick that I still have to share the title "human" with them. Makes me as ill to read that as it does to watch Animal Cops. I really hope simply for the NEGLECT aspect of ANY child, they get the maximum the law allows, and thensome.

PS~ The detachment from reality is disturbingly familiar, in these people. Describing her as "happy the day before" and "bubbly"... just gave me chills, ick, reminds me of the detachment my ex had, always saying nothing was wrong and everything was happy and fine. I hope the rest of the family is rescued asap.

That sounds like child abuse to me. Children shouldn't be fed every hour. I think you need to go to the health visitor/paediatrician and nutritionist.

If you don't stuff your baby's face every hour, even when they aren't hungry, if you leave it longer between feeding, then when they do eat they will eat a proper portion of food and won't be hungry for a while until the next meal.

Yes feeding your kid every hour makes them gain weight and they will be overweight. You should feed them every four hours. Feed them breakfast, then feed them lunch, then feed them when it's dinner time.

Something is deeply wrong about this case.

I would like not at this point to comment on the exact details of this case, as it is a current court case. We should allow the legal system to deal with this matter as it is sub judica, then we can discuss it at length after the court have given us an answer.

And how do you know that they're NTs?

Moreover, without a diagnosis, why is she paraded as autistic?

The veternarian we take our dogs to has an autistic son who was either super picky or just did not know how to eat...she had to have him put in the hospital just so he could get some nutrition. If this little girl was like that, why didn't they parents take her to a doctor

If someone with a disability is raped, they aren't raped because they are disabled. They are raped because there are rapists.

If a black person get's murdered as a hate crime, they aren't murdered because they are black. They are murdered because there extremely hateful people.


She did not die because she had autism. She died because she had neglectful parents.

This is deeply disturbing. Nobody should be allowed to suffer and die in such a manner. I hope they come-up with an answer to the why's and how's soon.

I really hope they don't get off without anything.