NSW: Govt apologises for failing to protect toddler

AAP General News (Australia)
12-10-2009
NSW: Govt apologises for failing to protect toddler

By Patrick Caruana

SYDNEY, Dec 10 AAP - The NSW government has apologised for failing to protect Dean
Shillingsworth, the Sydney toddler murdered by his mother.

A NSW Ombudsman's report found child protection agencies neglected to look after Dean,
who was murdered by Rachel Pfitzner before his body was stuffed into a suitcase and dumped
in a pond at Ambarvale, in Sydney's southwest, in October 2007.

Pfitzner was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday to a minimum of 19 years
and two months jail.

Community Services Minister Linda Burney has apologised to Dean's grandmother, Ann
Coffey, who had been trying to gain custody of her grandson.

"I say to Ms Coffey without reservation 'we're really, really sorry'," she told reporters
in Sydney on Thursday.

"Not enough was done to protect Dean."

Ombudsman Bruce Barbour's report, released on Thursday, was critical of the way the
Department of Community Services (DoCS) and a non-government agency handled the case.

"At times, information was not relayed, or not relayed effectively," Mr Barbour said
in the report.

"The department's actions ... revealed a continued failure to adequately respond to
reports about the risk of harm to the children."

Ms Burney said the government had worked tirelessly on child protection reforms in
the wake of the findings of the Wood Report.

But opposition community services spokeswoman Pru Goward said talk of reform was not enough.

"The minister cannot hide behind the word 'reform' any longer," Ms Goward said.

"We cannot have any confidence left that their further promises of reform will save
a single child."

Mr Barbour said a non-government agency involved with the family was more concerned
about the welfare of Pfitzner than her children.

"They were very much buying into the mother's desire to regain the care of her children
in circumstances where there were clear risks to the children," he said.

"Because their focus was on the mother they lost sight of the risk issues for the children."

Mr Barbour said 34 risk of harm reports were made about Dean and his older sister.

"None of those resulted in a comprehensive risk of harm assessment," he said.

"Most of them were closed and there was no action taken."

Ms Burney said DoCS didn't handle the case appropriately.

"There is no way that I'm going to defend that. It's not defendable," she said.

"Community Services did not do an adequate job in protecting Dean."

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KEYWORD: SHILLINGSWORTH WRAP

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