An inquest into the death of an Aboriginal teenager, who was killed by a crocodile while in out-of-home care, has recommended universal screening of women and children deemed at-risk of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) to reduce the risk they will come to harm.
The 15-year-old boy, referred to as HLS, was found dead in mangroves about 5km from a remote Aboriginal community at La Djadarr Bay on the Dampier Peninsula, about 140km north of Broome, Western Australia, on 14 March 2013.
A large saltwater crocodile was seen nearby.
An autopsy showed that he had traumatic injuries and soft tissue damage, consistent with having been attacked and dragged under the water by a crocodile. It also showed signs of shark bites that are assumed to have occurred posthumously.
It is the first confirmed death by crocodile in WA since 1987.
HLS had left the community on foot on the morning of 13 March after telling his friend, who lived with the same foster carer, that he planned to walk across the bay to Derby, about 80km away. He had been returned to the community the day before, after stealing a car with his friend and driving to Broome. He had told caseworkers that he did not want to remain in that community.
HLS’s carer, a senior Aboriginal man and distant family member, raised the alarm and triggered a police land and sea search after seeing him walk toward the beach.
He had been warned a number of times about crocodiles in the area and was not permitted to go to the beach alone, except when the tide was low.
Coroner Ros Fogliani said HLS’s death was “tragic and difficult to predict”, but that a lack of knowledge about caring for children with FASD on behalf of both the department of child protection and care provider Life Without Barriers could have contributed to him feeling unsettled and trying to walk to town on foot.
“It is not clear that such training would have ultimately avoided the tragic consequences in this case, but anything that could have been done to foster a strong relationship between HLS and his carers would have benefited him in the long term,” Fogliani said.
She recommended that the WA Aboriginal Community Health Service continue conducting regular screening of pregnant women and children deemed at risk of FASD. She also suggested the department should conduct targeted screening of children in the Kimberley as they enter the child protection system.
The Kimberley has one of the highest rates of FASD in Australia. One in eight children born in Fitzroy Valley in 2002 and 2003 had the developmental disorder, which can affect memory, attention span, concentration, vision, hearing and the ability to learn.
A parliamentary report in 2015 pushed for it to be recognised as a disability.
HLS was diagnosed with FASD as a baby and received regular medical support.
The inquest found that HLS’s aunt had asked the department to place him in care in early 2011, just before his 14th birthday, when he suffered a near-fatal solvent-sniffing overdose after returning home from a rehabilitation clinic in Alice Springs.
She reportedly told the department that her family had not been able to stop him sniffing while he lived with her in Beagle Bay and she believed he would live longer in care.
HLS spent 12 months in another Aboriginal community before moving to La Djadarr Bay, where he had two foster homes. All his carers were related to his aunt, known to him and considered to be culturally appropriate and safe places on his home country.
The carers were taught how to manage his solvent addiction, which Fogliani said was the priority of child protection workers because of the risk of overdose. However they were not given any information on FASD or how to manage a child who, the inquest heard, “had the brain of a child in the body of a teenager.”
