Kumanjayi Little Baby: Ex-top cop points to care worker failings in death as Jefferson Lewis awaits trial
A former state police chief who reviewed a child protection department is confident her recommendations will be acted on to better protect vulnerable children.
Warning: this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died. Her image has been used with family permission.
The increasing risks of violence faced by a five-year-old girl allegedly murdered in an outback town should have been picked up by care workers, says a former state police chief who reviewed the case.
Kumanjayi Little Baby’s body was found five days after she was allegedly abducted from Alice Springs’ Old Timers camp in April, sparking widespread outrage across Australia.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with her murder and is awaiting trial.
The Northern Territory government initiated an independent review of its child protection department by former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb and longtime public servant Greg Shanahan.
The review found “extensive failings” in the department, with child protection officers repeatedly failing to adequately assess safety threats to Kumanjayi Little Baby and her family.
The NT government has accepted the review’s 45 recommendations in full to “reset” the department.
Ms Webb told reporters in Darwin on Wednesday the missed calls for help in the Little Baby case stood out for her and “the lack of appreciation for the increasing risk to the child in that family situation”.
There was not one point of failure and her report’s 45 recommendations provided a practical path forward for the department to make significant change, she said.
Domestic and family violence was a significant proportion of the work of the department.
“There really needs to be a better appreciation of domestic and family violence being a risk in itself to a child, whether they’re just present or whether they’re involved physically in an altercation,” Ms Webb said.
“Any child that has to bear witness to violence in the home, it has to be damaging.”
The department was heavily reliant on the experience of child protection workers but that expertise was not evenly spread across the NT.
“So we need to take out the gap in that so any risk to any child should get the same treatment,” Ms Webb said.
The department received 14 notifications over six years about Kumanjayi Little Baby’s exposure to domestic and family violence, largely involving her father.
The offences included verbal and physical violence, breaches of domestic violence orders and coercive and controlling behaviour but a domestic and family violence risk assessment was never done.
A priority recommendation was an audit of current safety plans in the NT for children to make sure checks are done and that people on plans were safe to act in assigned protective roles.
When asked if a repeat of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case could recur, Mr Shanahan said there were always going to be risks.
“You don’t live with them 24/7. You can’t protect them 24/7,’‘ he told reporters.
“But what you can do is put in place mechanisms and methods and responses which will minimise the chances of that occurring.”
The report recommends the department and NT Police boost information sharing to ensure child protection decisions are informed by knowledge of domestic violence incidents, breaches of orders and other relevant offending.
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