The Australian http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/sisters-sue-over-abuse-by-foster-boy/story-e6frg6nf-1226044200073 Sisters sue over abuse by foster boy Source: The Australian By: Sarah Elks Date: Monday 25th April 2011 THREE sisters are suing the Queensland government for $1m after they were sexually abused by a rapist placed in their home as a foster child. According to documents filed in the Cairns District Court a 14-year-old Aboriginal boy from a remote Cape York community was placed in the care of a Cairns family by the Department of Child Safety in December 2005. At the time he was being prosecuted in the Childrens Court after pleading guilty to raping a three-year-old girl the daughter of his previous foster parents. The statement of claim alleges the department took no or no sufficient action to ensure the mother of the three girls understood the risk the boy would pose to her daughters. Over the course of several months the boy repeatedly abused the older sisters then aged 17 and 16. He would sneak into their bedrooms at night touch their genitals and masturbate in front of them. He abused the youngest girl then aged 14 once. In the Childrens Court of Queensland in Cairns on the 28th October 2008 the boy then aged 17 pleaded guilty to 14 sex offences relating to the abuse of the three girls. District Court judge Sarah Bradley sentenced him to two years probation. When the girls grandmother started to agitate for compensation from the state government in part to pay for the girls spiralling medical bills they were allegedly offered meagre settlements. The youngest now 18 says she was offered $3000. The three sisters are now suing the state government demanding compensation of nearly $1 million to pay for lost earnings medical bills and general damages. Their statement of claim says the Department of Child Safety knew or ought to have known that: Because of his sexualised behaviours the foster child was likely to sexually assault or attempt to sexually assault and behave in an indecent matter towards each of the (girls) if he were placed into foster care with the (girls) parents. The claim says the girls were frightened and terrified by the boys abuse and sustained psychiatric or psychological injuries as a result of his actions. Speaking publicly for the first time about the abuse the youngest sister told The Australian the abuse had torn her family apart. It has ruined my life and my familys life as well she said. It was just wrong that they put a child molester in the same house as three girls under the age of 18. She said she was unemployed, unable to get a job and too frightened to go to crowded places without her grandmother. I used to have plenty of friends. I had my life all planned out she said of her desire to become a barrister. A spokesman for the department, now known as Department of Communities declined to comment on the specifics of the case as the matter was before the court. However he confirmed the department would defend the claims made against it.