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September 27, 2005
Apology Required
This is a complicated and tragic story but let me try to outline the key points. The first news was that a little (six year old) girl had died - possible of a drug overdose. The next batch of information was raised by the NSW opposition who claimed that:
- the house where the girl died was being used to make / distribute drugs
- there had been multiple complaints to social security about the care of the children in the house
This was refuted by the state government with statements from the premier and the minister for social security. They claimed that the allegations were baseless and incorrect.
With me, so far? Now check out Medicine mix-up killed Rose, says mother (my emphasis):
Rose Villanueva-Austin died after she was given the drug methadone instead of cough medicine, a Sydney court has been told.
At a bail hearing at Blacktown Local Court yesterday, the child's mother, Julie Austin, broke down in the witness box as she denied knowingly giving her six-year-old daughter methadone. She claimed she had no idea the drug was in a cough medicine bottle, and said she needed bail to make the funeral arrangements.
...
Prosecutors told the court that repeated doses of methadone were "recklessly administered". The police prosecutor, Terry James, said the Crown's case would be based on a "reckless indifference to life".
He said the family home was a "supermarket of drugs", with two litres of methadone and a large quantity of prescription drugs found. Austin, 44, and her boyfriend, John King, 55 have been charged with murder, commercial supply of methadone and cannabis cultivation.
During interviews with police, Austin, who had been a heroin addict for 14 years, said Rose had first complained of feeling ill last Friday, the day after her sixth birthday. She gave her three doses of Dymadon, a pain-killer, over the next 24 hours.
When Rose awoke at 3.30am on Sunday complaining of a runny nose and sore throat, Austin said she gave her what she thought was Dimetapp. Austin woke again at 9am and found her daughter lying on the couch at the end of her bed. She had vomited and was not breathing.
...
A quantity of prescription drugs was also found in the house, as well as 13 marijuana plants growing in a garage on the property.
King was refused bail and ordered to reappear in Penrith Local Court on November 5. Austin's bail application will be heard on Wednesday.
So the opposition claims were correct - there were commercial quantities of drugs on the premises. It also appears (not reported in the above article) that there were somewhere around 200 complaints to social services about the neglect of the children - including this little girl - prior to her death.
Well, I don't know about you, but I think that someone in government owes the opposition an apology....
Posted by Ozguru at September 27, 2005 06:00 AM
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