Premier Anna Bligh admitted today that the Child Safety Department had clearly failed this 10 yr old girl. She was quoted as saying, “I think it is very important to understand, and I don’t resile from the fact for one moment, the system clearly failed this little girl.”

She went on to say that the government had taken immediate action and disciplined the officers involved, moving the child and improving child safety processes.

The facts have revealed that the girl was originally gang raped at the age of 7 and moved to Cairns where she resided in foster care with a non-indigenous family. That was in 2002, and in 2006 she was returned to Aurukun where she was raped again.

6 of the teenage attackers had no convictions and the 3 others, aged 17, 18 and 26 respectively, were given suspended sentences. Mr Carter said that the sex had been pre-arranged and the males had not forced themselves on the girl. “They are very naughty for doing what they’re doing, but it’s really, in this case, it was a form of childish experimentation, rather than one child being prevailed upon by another.” He told the court that such incidents were not out of character in small, remote communities.