by Dee McLachlan
If only people would just followed the law.
In Australia, every authority involved in child protection is bound by law to protect children — not harm them, or ignore them, and certainly not arbitrarily punish them.
One of the most shocking cases of authorities breaking the law is outlined in some detail in my book The Child Protection Racket. It illustrates how easily a bureaucracy can persecute a child while protecting itself. In South Australia, a female police officer was assigned to interview an eight-year-old girl about sexual abuse. For over an hour, the child bravely described egregious acts of abuse and torture. The officer then filed a report stating: “NIL DISCLOSURES.”
This deliberate falsification was uncovered about 18 months later — after the child’s life and her mother’s life had already been destroyed. Our advocacy may have contributed to both the Minister and Chief Executive later stepping down, but the damage has never been rectified.
The Sup-Court vs Support
Earlier this year I received — by mail — the sisters’ video testimonies and diaries. They were devastatingly compelling. As I wrote in Part 1, the younger sister said:
“She [my mum] hasn’t done anything wrong to me or anyone… She is the most beautiful woman in the world.”
When the State fails to protect a child, a parent has several lawful defences at their disposal — including s 70NAE, defence of another, and others rarely invoked.
I tried to find a legal team for the girls and their mother, but was unsuccessful as was the mum. After returning from South Africa, I learned they were still hiding. One barrister warned me that resolving their situation through the courts may take up to two years. To any rational mind, that was untenable.
So in August, it was decided that I would take the matter to the Supreme Court on a parens patriae application — a plea for the children’s liberty, so they could return to court themselves without being detained again. After several attempts, the ex parte application was accepted, and I was finally able to stand before a Justice as a litigation guardian.
The first question: Why should I be granted standing?
I laid out my reasoning — that it was plainly and urgently in the best interests of the children. After I delivered a passionate address, and after the Justice presumably considered the statements and exhibits, his Honour adjourned and returned with his ruling: the matter was not urgent because the girls had been safe (in hiding with their mother) for almost a year; they were not “in the custody” of the defendants, and as the case was “complex,” spanning four jurisdictions: Children’s Court, Magistrates’ Court, Family Court, and the Supreme Court, I was not given standing.
If only I had known that would be the reasoning. I would have said:
“Your Honour, for about seven years — with the collective genius of many lawyers, barristers, magistrates and government officers — this case has been engineered into a breathtaking tangle of contradictory orders that somehow manage to make the children both parentless, in the younger girl’s case, unlawfully detained. Hearsay has been elevated to gospel, their voices relegated to background noise. Truly — with that level of professional damage already achieved — what harm could possibly come from letting someone simply speak for them?”
It was encouraging that the ruling acknowledged the children had not been in danger with their mother — but even that finding was brushed aside in the aftermath.
Also, I am not going to go into too much detail about their experiences over the many months in constructive detention as they are sure to tell their story one day.
Pleas to Power
With the courts a cul de sac, and still without access to all the defective orders (which had never been served), I turned to the next avenue: direct appeals. I wrote to the Premier, Jacinta Allan MP, Peta McCammon Secretary (DFFH), the A-G Sonya Kilkenny, and Lizzie Blandthorn, Minister for Children explaining the predicament of the children and their mum. I appealed for their sense of justice and care for children, outlining the families predicament and case in general. I had met the mum in October 2024 when giving a talk on my book, so I wrote:
“…[the mum] shared her story with me back then — a story that many would struggle to believe. Yet I have encountered many similar accounts: where children and a parent fall through the cracks into judicial purgatory where the “best interests” of the child become little more than a mirage.
“Over the years, I have written hundreds of letters to ministers, commissioners, governors, oversight bodies, and chief justices. The responses almost always defer the matter to the courts; but the courts offer little remedy consistent with international treaties, legal principles, or the best interests of children. [The younger sister’s] case has been no different, and she and her sister have been trapped in a procedural labyrinth with no genuine avenue for relief.”
I asked/demanded that orders, warrants, and alerts against the family must be placed on hold so they could put their case forward. I urged that the family needed practical support to rebuild their lives — housing, and stability — especially after government actions left them homeless and in hiding. And finally, the younger girl’s unlawful Secure Welfare detention demanded an independent investigation as no child should ever be used as a pawn and detained beyond legal limits.
I did not receive a response.
If there is one theme that runs through every page of this case, it is silence — not from the children, who have been desperately trying to speak — but from the authorities entrusted with protecting them. In my follow-up letter to officials, I made every attempt to de-escalate the matter:
“I have placed countless calls to the relevant case workers in an attempt to understand and resolve these matters… [yet] the children’s predicament remains suspended in what can only be described as a ‘void of disinterest’… “
I outlined the hundreds of days the younger sister had endured — fleeing danger, hiding for her own safety, being forcibly placed, detained in Secure Welfare, and ultimately seeking refuge with her sister and mother to escape further harm. I submitted their detailed statements, which clearly dispelled the foundations of any order purporting to “protect” her.
Still no response.
By this time, I had made more than twenty calls to DFFH social workers and to the Secretary. The Minister’s office was polite enough to reply — only to say they had forwarded my correspondence to the Department.
In the final days of September, I was becoming exasperated. The older sister had rung police multiple times that year; officers suggested they “come in and meet.” After speaking with the girls and their mother, we agreed to attempt a family group meeting. I emailed and called both Box Hill police stations and the relevant DFFH workers, leaving clear messages requesting a non-punitive family meeting to discuss the girls’ predicament. For the first time in weeks, I felt a sliver of hope.
The Phone Call
The next morning, I woke to my phone ringing. It was the older sister. She was whispering.
“Dee… Dee, what do we do. The police are at the front door. About 10 of them. They here for [younger sister].
My heart sank. I felt truly helpless. The system had ignored every plea for reason and chosen the most aggressive, adversarial path possible. The young lass already feared the police.
AI Image — police have come to “retrieve” a 13-year-old teenager.
I stayed on the line as the older sister relayed what was happening in real time.
“They’ve arrested Mum… and now they are taking [her younger sister] back to secure…”
Had they not read their statements? Had they not grasped the harm caused by detention and isolation the first time around?
Once again, they were going to punish her — for trying to protect herself.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Please keep comments to point
‘jacinta.allan@parliament.vic.gov.au’;
‘sonya.kilkenny@parliament.vic.gov.au’;
‘Lizzie.Blandthorn@parliament.vic.gov.au’
https://gumshoenews.com/missing-justice-pt-1-missing-persons-and-the-undisclosed-location/
https://gumshoenews.com/missing-justice-pt-2-protection-v-punishment/
https://gumshoenews.com/missing-justice-pt-3-breaching-the-bureaucratic-blindfold/
Call the police.
Well, that’s ’Dan Land’, nothing has changed since the ‘WORLD HEALTH corporation’ (WHO) Covid scam was implemented by control freakish globalist foreign interests trying to make our political representatives and cruel bureaucrats bow to their dictates.
Victoria: ‘THE GUTLESS STATE’.
Half a dozen Victorian coppers standing at the front door terrifying childre🙀.
Making Victoria appear internationally as an incompetent authoritarian state.
Victoria today, the rest of Australia being lined up next.
Who and what assists them?
The silence of the fake mass media and our $billion plus, plus interest paid for by us. – by any chance🤷♂️
The country will sink further if Victorians do not invent a spine.🙈🙈🙈
Our politicians are redundant. The mass media must hate Australia.
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your amazing Dee, I can not get past that which is also amazing. Heart lifting even in a lost battle. A small quibble but the ai photo should not be here. Maybe things have changed but I’ve been “raided”, happens very early and not just through the front door. Possibly a show of force in this case, the photo just muddies that(a tiny bit).
There are just not enough stars on my keyboard for you.
Thank you Simon
The mum said the police were polite this time around??? Not like the raids before. They waited patiently at the front door — and somehow got in????
Just received this email from a reader.
It was sent to a number of ministers and leaders:
Dear ‘staffers’ of the above representatives.
Matter for you to bring to the notice of the recipients.
I appreciate that they may have other priorities than the reported conduct and manner that the Victorian government administers the state relating to; the interests of children, the conduct of the responsible bureaucrats, the conduct of the police and their department.
However, some members of the public (Australia wide) are very concerned with the reports at gumshoenews.com with Ms Mclachlan’s efforts to demonstrate her detailed concern for the cruel and ‘over authoritarian’ and wasteful manner that is presented with her reported lengthy experience of the conduct relating to a family being terrified by the Victorian government.
(For years, I am personally aware of the many horrific examples of similar conduct in other cases, including in South Australia, she has devoted much expense, time and years of effort in similar cases and in my professional opinion, on my knowledge,,should be recognised above all other media and political pretenders)
The links to her three articles are set out in her present 4th INSTALMENT of 3/12/25 in her comment thereunder.
I trust that her detailed reports and many court efforts will be of assistance to the relevant members in their investigation of all the circumstances and lead to the implementation of a more natural humane policy with strict transparent oversight by a relevant Minister and the parliament.
It seems to be common problem in many state administrations and worthy of discussions with other Australian state ministers…… and contributions by the Federal Attorney General, as varying jurisdictions are affected by independent legislation that is contradictory in purpose leading to the necessity to handle issues in different courts: e.g state local and criminal courts v federal courts.
Conflicting court orders in the separate hearings are not recognised in many instances. Cases determined in the family court have been ignored in state courts. One tactic is for a unsatisfied litigant in a federal court to then bring allegations in a state criminal court causing another
round of appearances and costs!
So what does a litigant do? That is clearly completely unsatisfactory for litigants and ‘just’ determination of a matter.
Dee refers to that reality in her article? But we have discussed the tactic used over many years. In South Australia she experienced horrendous circumstances.
Dear ‘staffers’, please confirm if this matter has been brought to the attention of your respective members.
(signed)
[I, Dee, have spoken to this reader about legal matters in past years. Appreciate the effort for trying to change the system]
Perhaps ‘system’ is subject to POLITICAL convenience and protecting INCOMPETENT BACKSIDES? to ensure a trough of superannuation.
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3/12/25.
Presented by real Mary.
Judy Byington: unredacted special intel report … the WH triggers end game……..the countdown has begun”
Why should I give a stuff Sandra of the ‘cultists’
as you have opined, at:
http://www.beforeitsnews.com – people powered ‘Dickey’ (hi Joe) news.
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All to ‘Dickey’ for me. I know sfa.
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What I find so sad, is as soon as I publish these articles, my inbox and messages are flood with epic epic stories — of babies and children being ripped from parents. These poor parents beg for help — any help to compete with a system that has no logic and no humanity.
God help us… and try forgive humanity for they know what they do.
The information being gathered here with Dee is what the politicians and mass media censor. because they realise that they are redundant for purpose.
So now we can detect what they are hiding. those bastards are history as the people realise what they have been hiding.
The political traitors and mass media lying fiends are history as the citizens MARCH with pitch forks and TAR AND FEATHERS
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