THE Family Court has ordered a six-year-old girl to live with her father, despite evidence she was forced to pose for pornographic photographs while staying with him on a contact visit.

  • Girl abused by brother of father's girlfriend
  • She is ordered to live with her father
  • Family Court "exposing children to risk"
The girl was abused, not by her father, but by the father's girlfriend's brother.

The court heard the brother, known only as Mr V, was born with hydrocephalus, meaning he has a larger-than-normal head and a damaged frontal lobe. He carries a camera everywhere, and takes photographs of everything.

It is not clear when, or how often, he had access to the six-year-old girl, but the court heard he was able to take at least three photographs of her.

In one photograph, the girl "appears to be kneeling on the floor, turning her head around to face the camera. Her underwear is pulled down to just below her bottom".

In the second photograph, the girl is "again kneeling down, her bottom facing toward the camera, her bottom exposed".

In the third, she is "standing up to face the camera. . .pulling down her underwear with her right index finger and her thumb, exposing her genitalia".

Mr V was arrested and charged with child pornography offences after handing in the film to be developed.

The case comes just a day after a Family Court judge in Hobart ordered two girls, aged eight and ten, to spend weekends with their sex offender father provided he put a door on their bedroom.

Federal magistrate Robyn Sexton, who presided over the case, which is known as Askis and Morikis, in Sydney, ruled that the girl was not at risk if she lived with the father.

But she acknowledged that "critical questions need urgent answers" including: "How did the girl come to be photographed in pornographic poses while in the father's care, and how did it come about that (the girl) was placed in this situation without the knowledge of the father or his fiancee?"

Ms Sexton then ordered the girl to live with her father, pending a full hearing in July, provided Mr V was banned from contact with the girl.

The girl has never lived with her father - her parents separated before she was born - but the magistrate accepted evidence from a court counsellor, who said the mother had been manipulating the girl by telling her to "cry when she sees her father".

The counsellor thought the mother might suffer from a mental illness, although she agreed she did not have the expertise to diagnose it.

In that case, Justice Robert Benjamin said the girls needed protection from their father overnight, but thought they could handle him unsupervised while awake, clothed and together.

Charles Pragnell, of the Council for Children Post-Separation, said the decision involving the six-year-old was "a classic example of how the Family Courts are ordering children into potentially abusive situations".

"Clearly the judge and the experts advising him know nothing about the behaviours of pedophiles," Mr Pragnell said.


http://www.news.com.au/national/girl-put-with-dad-despite-porn-fear/story-e6frfkvr-1225841160663

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/girl-put-with-dad-despite-porn-fear/story-e6frg6nf-1225841113849





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