THE father of a seven-year-old girl who was left to starve in squalid conditions at Hawks Nest in 2007 will remain behind bars after his first bid for parole was refused.
The man, who can only be identified as BW, was in 2009 jailed for a maximum of 16 years, with a non-parole period of 12 years after he was found guilty of manslaughter over one of Australia's worst cases of child starvation.
The girl, who can only be identified as "Ebony", was found dead in her bedroom on November 3, 2007.
She weighed nine kilograms and had been left to starve in her own faeces.
A forensic pathologist later said that the young girl looked almost mummified and a specialist gastroenterologist opined that her death was the result of chronic malnutrition and profound neglect. BW would have been eligible for parole on Saturday November 16, after serving the non-parole period of 12 years, but the State Parole Authority blocked his bid for release.
"The State Parole Authority formed an intention to refuse parole to a 58-year-old offender at a private hearing on September 13, 2019," a State Parole Authority spokeswoman said
"The Serious Offenders Review Council considered his release to parole was not appropriate."
The girl's mother, SW, was found guilty of murder and initially sentenced to life imprisonment, but that was reduced on appeal to a maximum of 40 years in jail.
BW - who was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter after a trial in East Maitland Supreme Court - gave evidence that he had only seen "Ebony" twice at Hawks Nest that he could recall because he was in his "own little world with Valium".
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