VIDEO: Abused since age 3, it took more than 50 departmental reports and 10 years to remove Sally from that home
SALLY: Child exposed to domestic violence - five reports. Risk of physical harm and injury - six reports. Inadequate shelter and homelessness - three reports. Risk of sexual harm and injury - five reports.
KAMIN GOCK, REPORTER: Sally’s childhood is laid out in hundreds of documents. They detail an upbringing marred by alleged abuse and neglect.
SALLY: It was reported that there was sexual abuse leaving me with severe vaginal trauma.
KAMIN GOCK: She was just three years old when that incident was reported to NSW Child Protection Services.
SALLY: It was confirmed and referred to as a case closed.
KAMIN GOCK: Welfare notifications date back to when she was a baby and continued throughout her childhood.
SALLY: A member of the public had concerns that I had been picked up from school by two unknown males and put in the boot of a car. There were concerns that I had been sexually abused.
KAMIN GOCK: How old were you?
SALLY: Approximately six years of age.
My life was horrendous growing up. I was subject to repeated sexual assaults, physical, psychological and emotional neglect. I was often left unsupervised at the hands of abusive males that were supposed to be trusted adults that took advantage of my vulnerability.
KAMIN GOCK: Fifty-six ‘risk of significant harm’ reports were submitted to the now Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) before Sally was removed from her home.
She was 13.
SALLY: I grew up being bullied as a result of consequences from other adults that were not taking their responsibility seriously. I often missed a lot of education.
KAMIN GOCK: 7.30 has chosen not to use Sally’s real name. She has spent her adult life fighting for justice.
SALLY: People were on notice and done nothing and I hope that it never happens again to another little girl.
JULIE BAQLEH, PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER: That was the sad thing about my client's case, to be honest because there were reports, reports from the age of, a very young age. So the department was on notice, and yet they didn't do anything about it.
KAMIN GOCK: Julie Baqleh is Sally’s solicitor and helped her sue the state of New South Wales for negligence.
JULIE BAQLEH: I most definitely thought this is such a courageous young woman and was across pretty much the entire case and the matter herself.
KAMIN GOCK: The legal team argued the state failed to act after repeated warnings and did not take reasonable precautions to protect Sally.
JULIE BAQLEH: There is continual systematic failures We’re not talking cases 30, 40, 60 years ago – we're talking cases in the last 20 years.
KAMIN GOCK: That problem has been laid bare by the New South Wales Auditor-General in a scathing report about the DCJ.
It labelled the state’s child protection system as “inefficient, ineffective and unsustainable”.
112,000 children were suspected to be at risk of significant harm last year, but three-quarters received no home-based safety assessment.
That means their cases were closed without any follow up services and the department does not know the outcomes for these children.
How is that acceptable?
KATE WASHINGTON, NSW FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES MINISTER: It's not. It's not remotely acceptable and that's why I have always been saying status quo with the system isn't an option.
There's so much work to be done, but that the number of children being seen is a symptom of the broader system and the problems that we're seeing in terms of caseworkers.
KAMIN GOCK: The report states approximately 71,000 children had their cases closed because there were no available caseworkers to assess them in the home.
KATE WASHINGTON: We have place, places available for them across the state, we just need to fill them, and every year we are recruiting about 500 new caseworkers, but we're not able to keep them, and that's a sign of a system that's not able to support them in the work that they're doing, and that's got to be part of our reform.
KAMIN GOCK: There is an out-of-home-care systems review underway and is expected to be completed in late-October.
Minister Kate Washington says she will implement significant changes informed by that report and others including the Auditor General’s.
Is the DCJ overwhelmed?
KATE WASHINGTON: Not overwhelmed, but we are invigorated in our task to reform the system as it is.
KAMIN GOCK: Is the DCJ under resourced?
KATE WASHINGTON: I think the, I think the Audit Office says it well in that it is not able to do what it ought to. It's not doing what it what it's designed to do. It's a system that seems to have, to be supporting itself rather than achieving and focused on outcomes for families and children.
That's the system we need to get to and it's more a system problem than a resourcing issue.
KAMIN GOCK: Since the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its report in 2017, there has been a surge in survivors coming forward and fighting for compensation.
7.30 can reveal a 940 per cent increase in the number of abuse matters filed against the state government in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
In 2019, there were 73 cases but as of last year that number had increased to 687.
KATE WASHINGTON: If people have suffered at the hands of a system, they ought to be compensated.
KAMIN GOCK: Julie Baqleh says there have been significant delays for abuse survivors waiting to receive personal records from government agencies.
JULIE BAQLEH: That's definitely a resourcing issue. So we used to be able to get records within three months. Now we're waiting 12 months, in some situations, 18 months. It's really ridiculous.
KATE WASHINGTON: We've injected $3 million to assist that team to respond to the exponential increase in demand on their services. There's still a delay. We understand that that delay can make a real difference to people, and we acknowledge that there's more to be done.
SALLY: Equine therapy has definitely played a role in being able to trust, being able to get out and gain confidence, being able to connect with these creatures who are often scared so there is definitely a lot of similarities.
KAMIN GOCK: Sally settled her case last year and says she can now focus on the future.
SALLY: The system failed, and I'm allowed to hold on to that hurt and pain. It doesn't mean that it needs to take away the rest of my life. People can hold on to pain and change.
Compensation doesn't change it. It's just money.
And whilst I can never change what had happened, I do hope that it can prevent another case, and I do hope that my story can help another victim, and I hope that it can help justice for other people in the future.
7.30 can reveal a huge surge in the number of child abuse matters filed against the state in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
And a warning that the following story contains references to sexual abuse. Here's reporter Kamin Gock.