The parents of a teenage ballerina who allowed their daughter to dwindle to just 4st have attributed her condition to “being vegan”, even as the child appealed for their prison sentences to be overturned. An unnamed Australian couple in their mid-40s were sentenced last month at Perth’s District Court of Western Australia for neglecting their only child.
Her dance instructors had implored the parents to seek medical help, but when they refused, the authorities were alerted. Due to legal reasons, the child’s identity remains protected. Upon admission to the hospital, she was found to be brittle and severely undernourished, with doctors warning of potential cardiac arrest and death reports the Mirror.
At the time the girl, then 17, was treated like a “small child”, witnesses reported. She required assistance with basic tasks such as using the toilet, having her nose blown, and hair brushed while watching cartoons aimed at very young children, according to court testimony.
Now aged 20, she expressed deep disappointment over the judge’s decision to jail her dad for six and a half years and her mum for five. The father defended their actions by claiming her alarming weight loss was due to her choice to be a “vegan” and a “fussy eater”.
“My client didn’t starve his kid… He never withheld food from her,” said his lawyer Oliver Paxman on CNN. “He loved and spoiled his daughter. She was free to eat as much as she wanted. This case was about inadequate nutrition from a vegan diet.
“Every parent on this planet knows that if you don’t give a child enough food they will starve. But what if your kid chooses to be vegan?”
Judge Linda Black said although the parents loved their daughter, they were at fault for trying to maintain her in an immature state for too long. “This is not a case about a malnourished ballerina,” she remarked.
“You isolated your daughter, you prevented her from growing up, you prevented her from developing in the way she was entitled to. You did keep her as a little girl long beyond the age where she should have been.”
Black dismissed the couple’s credibility, noting they lied repeatedly about their daughter’s age to conceal her serious undernourishment. He said: “It seems that everyone in the world who had the opportunity to interact with [the girl] understood she was severely malnourished, except the two people who professed to love her.
“I simply cannot accept that you didn’t see it. I simply cannot accept that you didn’t notice.”
In her ruling, Judge Black harshly addressed the parents, writing: “She was wasted, according to the doctor, with limited body fat. She was pale. She was exhibiting no signs of puberty. Her hair was brittle and thin. Her skin was dry and flaking. Her heart rate was elevated. The doctor said they needed to do an ECG. And the two of you said no.
“There is nothing unusual in a parent wanting to cling onto their child and be reluctant to let them go and mature and become an adult. Nothing unusual at all. What is wrong is when a parent prevents the child from embarking upon and completing that natural process.
“One of your greatest failures was a belief that you could give her what she wanted and failing to give her what she needed… Every parent knows it’s harder to say no to your child than to say yes. You chose to make the easy decisions rather than the hard ones.”
The daughter defended her parents in a written statement submitted to court: “I’m fully dependent on my parents. All my living expenses are paid by my parents, including clothes, food, money as I need it. My university fees are being paid by my parents.
“I love my parents very much. They are the most important people in my life. If my parents go to prison, I don’t think I’ll be able to cope.”
Despite this, Judge Black stressed the parents failed to take responsibility and made the decision to imprison them. Meanwhile, the father is exploring his options through his legal representation.