autistic girl starved to death

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Girl, 7, 'starved over months'
Dan Proudman
May 20, 2009
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl who weighed just nine kilograms when she died had suffered "long-lasting starvation and neglect" over several months, a court heard yesterday.

On the first day of the murder trial of the girl's parents, the Supreme Court sitting in East Maitland, near Newcastle, heard that the girl's condition would have probably taken months to deteriorate. She might have been unable to move for weeks and could have been comatose for days before severe dehydration set in and she was found dead in the bedroom of the family's Hawks Nest house on November 3, 2007.

During jury selection, Crown prosecutor Peter Barnett, SC, warned that some of the photographic evidence to be presented could be as confronting as images of children from African famines and the Holocaust.

In his opening address, Mr Barnett told the jury of six men and six women that Westmead Children's Hospital gastroentorologist Edward O'Loughlin would say the girl's condition was the worst he had seen. "He will tell you that in his opinion the deceased died of malnutrition, which was secondary to starvation," Mr Barnett said.

"He will tell you it would have taken months for the deceased to have become that emaciated.

"He will also indicate that he has seen over 500 malnourished children and never seen one so emaciated and malnourished as the deceased."

The girl's parents, a 47-year-old man and 35-year-old woman who cannot be identified for legal reasons, have pleaded not guilty to murdering their daughter.

Mr Barnett told the court police and ambulance officers found the girl's "extremely wasted" body on a mattress stained with human waste inside the family home after the father reported the death up to six hours after he said his wife had first discovered her dead.

Mr Barnett said the girl's father had told police his daughter had suffered from a developmental bone delay, was autistic and had struggled to come to terms with the family moving from Sydney to Hawks Nest.

But he told police the girl had a healthy appetite and seemed fine the night before she was found dead, sitting on a sofa before going to bed about 8pm.

The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, will continue today

Oh my God. That is horrific.

F**kers plead not gulity?

OMG! How stupid can parents with an autistic child get?
But this is the lowest case of a**hole stupidity!

F**kers need to locked up for
the rest of their sorry days, no parole.

This is a horrible case, I think that the question of if the child was an autie or aspie should not be important. It is wrong to starve a child to death no matter what what the DX of the child.

I will not comment further on this case as it is an ongoing court case, I think we should allow the legal system to deal with this matter first before we discuss it in detail.

The mother has just been found guilty of murder, the father of manslaughter. They were both heavy drug users.
They should be hung.

All jury members have been offered counselling.

It makes me sick. Poor little girl must have died in such pain. I'll never understand why some peaple have childern. If they didn't want her they could have called someone to come and get her.

I agree with Woodpecker. It's just a tragic story whether the girl was autistic or not. I wish I hadn't read this now, no sleep for me tonight

Those parents should be shot and their graves used as public urinals so society can take a collective P@#% on them.

I have to say part of me realy loves this idea. But the dark parts of my mind would enjoy a stoning in the place of shooting the parents that way we could all get a rock. As the law stands now the best we can hope for is a life in jail. But nothing is going to bring this child back so we all need to honor her and keep a eye out were we live and look for childern that are being abused and make sure to report it so we are able to keep something like this from happening again.

those cruel bastards.

there has to be something done so that this never happens again to any child.

We should stop this stupid BS hiding peoples names for "legal reasons" in many trials.

unless it's a civil trial or there are circumstances when both sides agree to it.

that being said some people should not reproduce or have other freedoms this is far too common and a p[rime source of suffering in this world for many people.

It's for severe cases like these, there should be capital punishment.

This just made me ill. Children are precious and these sacks of crap just abused their daughter. Probably listened to her crying, begging them for just a morsel of food or a sip of water...probably cried herself to sleep, clutching her stomach and whimpering. Forced to lick the tears from her hands to last that little bit longer.

God I want to kill these sacks of s**t.