Outrage as 5-year-old girl's custody awarded to convicted sex-offender father (Australia)

I don't often say this, but do you think that maybe foster care or adoption might be better in this case? There is no doubt that Mum has some serious issues. But giving sex-offender UNNAMED DAD custody of a 5-year-old girl is just like jumping out of the pan into the proverbial fire. What we have here is too much glorification of "fathers rights" and not much common sense or decency. And, needless to say, zero concern for children.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/07/05/2010-07-05_outrage_as_fiveyearold_girls_custody_awarded_to_convicted_sexoffender_father.html

Outrage as five-year-old girl's custody awarded to convicted sex-offender father
BY Sherry Mazzocchi
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Monday, July 5th 2010, 1:51 PM

A court in Australia is under fire for awarding custody of a five-year-old girl to her heroin-using, sex offender father it deemed a better option than her opiate-addicted mother, who is also a prostitute.

Outraged at the Federal Magistrates’ Court ruling, child welfare advocates described the decision as “defying logic.”

“There’s no way staying with either parent should have even been an option,” child protection supporter Hetty Johnson told Australia’s Herald Sun. “This isn’t in the best interests of the child.”

According to the newspaper, the child’s mother has a rap-sheet of shoplifting and prostitution related convictions. The court was also told the mother, who has a history of drug abuse, left the maternity ward to buy heroin not long after giving birth.

The father was previously convicted of willful and obscene exposure, which caused him to be put on the nation’s sex offenders list. He also reportedly has a history of drug abuse.

Joe Tucci, of the Australian Childhood Foundation, told the Sun “the decision should be made about whether or not a child is safe or not, not which parent is the better to look after them.”

The young child has a history of behavior problems and suffers a speech impediment. She has also suffered from a series of significant injuries.

Last year the Department of Human Services was notified the girl had been treated for a serious burn on her buttocks. Both parents blamed the other as the cause of the burn.

The child also had a dog bite and was once injured from being hit with a shoe.

The parents parted soon after their daughter’s birth. The mother is reported to have been the victim of domestic violence by the father.

The father provides calmer parenting and more clearly set boundaries than the mother does,” the magistrate said. “A history of inadequate supervision combined with heroin and marijuana use create a serious concern that (the girl) may be neglected by her mother.”

The court also accused the girl’s mother of being “dishonest with the court,” but allowed the child to spend two out of every three weekends with her mom.

The Department of Human Services said on Monday that it will monitor the young girl through regular visits after the report of the court’s decision appeared in the Herald Sun.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/07/05/2010-07-05_outrage_as_fiveyearold_girls_custody_awarded_to_convicted_sexoffender_father.html#ixzz0svJ6D4Mm