Parents accused of starving malnourished teenage daughter dismissed teacher’s concerns, court told

A teenager was so skinny she had “wafer thin” arms, and was at risk of fractures if she jumped too much, the trial of her parents who are accused of starving her has heard.

WARNING: This story contains details some people may find distressing.

The District Court has heard graphic evidence about the girl’s weight, with a dance teacher who raised the alarm about the teen’s condition telling the jury she believed she was malnourished.

The parents are accused of engaging in conduct that resulted in a child suffering. 

The dance teacher said the girl had a “large head, petite body, very skinny arms.”

She wore “pretty little dresses” and had fluffy toys, and her mother always waited at the venue for classes to finish, when other parents tended to drop their girls off.

In photos shown in court, the girl is pictured with dancers aged 11 and 12 and appears smaller than them, even though she was aged around 13 at the time.

By 2018, the teacher said the girl seemed “smaller and weaker” and there were concerns she may suffer a stress fracture or other injury.

“We didn’t think she’d be able to cope with the amount of jumps,” the teacher told the court.

The teacher said that by 2019, the girl’s arms were “wafer thin” and she thought the girl was “maybe malnourished”.

Girl was vegan

The teacher told the court she was increasingly concerned about the child’s nutritional intake, because as a physiotherapist who had worked in a hospital, she knew the signs of anorexia.

She said the teen had told her she was vegan, and she made several attempts to discuss the situation with her mother, but her concerns were dismissed.

By 2019 the teacher said the girl “had not been progressing in development” and she suggested to the mother that the girl needed a medical appointment.

However, the mother was “adamant” that her daughter was “completely fine”, claiming she had been a premature baby.

By this time the father also became involved, calling the dance teacher “really upset that we kept harassing” the mother at the studio, the teacher said, telling her his daughter was getting “quite stressed”.

In 2020, the parents agreed to meet the teacher and a school director, who told them their daughter was “weak” and was “fatiguing” during classes.

‘They just kept brushing us off’

The teacher said they expressed concern about the girl’s diet, asking what she was eating instead of meat, but the parents maintained their daughter was simply “small in stature”.

“They just kept brushing us off,” the teacher said, even though their daughter had not put on weight in three years.

The parents believed the teacher and director were “over-worrying and being over-concerned”, she told the court, and “completely refused a medical assessment”.

“There’s underweight and then there’s that borderline [anorexia],” the teacher said.

She said the father claimed his daughter was being discriminated against because she was vegan.

The dance school sought legal advice on how it would deal with a stress fracture or injury, and whether there was authority to contact a medical officer about the girl’s plight.

“I did not want to have that on my head,” the teacher told the court.

Red flags had also been raised by the parents claiming their daughter was younger than she actually was, the teacher said.

But the school was told it couldn’t legally insist on a medical assessment.

Earlier the court was told that when the girl was eventually admitted to hospital in 2021 at the age of 17, she was found to be suffering from malnutrition and was dangerously underweight, weighing just 27 kilograms.

Doctors determined that the 17-year-old had the height and size of a much younger girl, and had childlike tastes and preferences.

However, she didn’t have an eating disorder.

The trial is continuing.

Loading