Floreat teen’s mother reluctantly admits daughter was severely underweight but denies malnourishment cause

WARNING: CONFRONTING IMAGES. The mother of an emaciated Floreat teenager has reluctantly accepted her daughter was severely underweight when she was hospitalised, but denies she wasn’t fed properly. The woman and her husband are now in the fourth week of their District Court of WA trial, accused of neglecting their only child. Testifying for the second day on Wednesday, the mother initially only accepted that when her daughter was admitted to Perth Children’s Hospital weighing just 28kg - days away from turning 17 in April 2021 - that she was underweight. But the woman replied “yes” when asked for a second time if she accepted the girl’s condition was severe. The mum firmly responded “I disagree” when prosecutor Jenha Winter put to her it was due to inadequate nutrition, not sufficient for a growing child. The keen dancer had last been weighed in 2017 when she was aged 13, clocking in at just 21kg. Asked if the home-schooled girl’s presentation over those intervening years caused alarm, the woman didn’t hesitate, replying: “Not at all”. “She’s always been the same proportion,” the mother added. Ms Winter pressed her on how she had understood, when her daughter was very young, that it had been important to take her to two medical specialists when she failed to feed properly, refusing to eat solid food. “Yes, I was concerned as to why she didn’t want to chew her food,” the mum said. “I’d never had a baby before.” The prosecutor suggested the woman was saying she just hadn’t appreciated during 2017 and 2021 that the girl appeared malnourished. “I had investigated everything when she was younger and there were no problems,” the mum said. “I figured ‘that’s just her’ ... there was nothing that could be done. “She was growing. She did grow.” Echoing her husband’s testimony, the woman did not accept that parents were ultimately responsible for ensuring their offspring received enough nutrition. The girl became a strict vegan when she was 12 after researching animal cruelty and the mum accepted the proposition that a child of that age shouldn’t control their own diet, replying “I guess not”. But she added: “You can’t actually force somebody to eat more”. “She was responsible for determining how much she ate because she had to eat it. “The parents can’t control the child to make them eat.” The mother was asked if a child was at risk of harm such as organ damage and immune system problems without adequate nutrition, only agreeing “conceptually speaking”. Whether it could cause dry skin and hair, the woman attributed that in her daughter to taking 30-40 minute hot showers as her obsessive compulsive disorder worsened during COVID. She also blamed a yellow-orange skin discolouration, reported by prosecution witnesses, on carotenemia - a benign condition caused by excessive consumption of carrots, pumpkins and other food high in carotene. It “never crossed” her mind that malnutrition could explain delayed puberty or a child being much smaller than other kids their age, she testified. The woman insisted she had not received multiple messages from dance teacher Tania Shillington, who was so concerned about the girl’s weight, she asked for a medical certificate in late 2019 to prove the teen was fit to train. In bombshell testimony last week, the father said he was controlling - intercepting his wife’s phone calls and deleting messages. Ms Winter asked the woman about this “conveniently” and “routinely” happening, alleging she had agreed with her husband that he would “take the fall for you in this trial”. She denied it. Earlier, Ms Winter pressed the woman on her relationship with her sister, which she denied was turbulent because her sibling had raised concerns about the teen’s weight. The woman also rejected Ms Winter’s assertion that both her own father and sister “had problems” with her parenting - and appeared angry when she recalled finding out they had been speaking with the Department of Communities before the girl was taken into State care. Quizzed on her close bond with her now 20-year-old daughter, the mum cried as she said: “She’ll always be my little girl”. The trial continues. If you need help or support for an eating disorder or body image issue, please call Butterfly’s National Helpline on 1800 334 673 or email support@butterfly.org.au Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800