The guardians of an autistic boy are behind bars after pleading guilty to neglect and physical abuse following a violent outburst when he refused to do the dishes.
The seven-year-old boy’s foster parents from regional Western Australia, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in Perth court on Thursday.
The court heard the foster mother, 31, asked the boy to do the dishes in April 2023 but he refused and kicked her, causing her to push him into a wooden table where he hit his head and fell unconscious. WA Today.
The woman called her partner, 33, who returned to the house and helped place the boy, who was still unconscious, in a warm bath because he was cold.
The court heard the water was far too hot and burned a quarter of his body, requiring skin grafts, but the little boy was unresponsive as he was unconscious.
The couple put the boy to bed, even though he was still conscious, and returned the next morning to find him unresponsive and his eyes rolling back.
At 2pm that afternoon they finally took the boy to hospital, where it turned out he had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Perth Children’s Hospital for surgery.
He recovered but has a brain injury, a scar from the operation and has needed several skin grafts.
A 7-year-old autistic boy was pushed back against a wooden table and hit his head, causing a brain haemorrhage, when he refused to do the dishes and kicked at his foster mother (stock image)
It took almost a full day for the boy’s foster parents to take him to hospital, where he was flown to Perth for surgery (stock image)
The foster mother later told police that the boy hit his head while feigning a seizure.
She also told them she wouldn’t hurt her children, but added that she “used to hit them” until she realized she was “becoming like her mother.”
Police found a text message she had sent from her partner, the boy’s biological uncle and father, to their three children, complaining that “the bastards had broken down the door.”
‘Don’t lie next to him anymore. We cannot run the risk of things going wrong. Just lock him in the bedroom,” the man replied.
The boy’s biological mother, from NSW, had suggested her brother and his partner take care of the child after a previous placement in Queensland failed.
During their regular video calls, she noticed that the boy’s posture had deteriorated since moving to Washington and that he often wore long clothes despite the warm weather. Police later said they found multiple bruises on the child.
The court heard the boy had been diagnosed with autism, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder and the foster parents were unprepared to deal with him.
However, Judge Linda Petrusa said the couple had both agreed to take the boy and had not sought help or asked to move on.
The couple’s biological children are under the care of the state.
They will be sentenced on October 4.
