Farren and Lucien

Farren died a couple of years ago, in his early 20s.

‘He was born with profound intellectual impairment, epilepsy, and later on diagnosed with autism,’ his father Lucien told the Royal Commission. ‘He was very much a part of our family.’

By his early teens, Farren was exhibiting ‘violent and aggressive behaviours’.

‘He was, you know, damaging property, hitting out at family members.’

His parents were ‘screaming for more support from disability services’ to support Farren at home.

‘They never got back to us. We did get some regular respite after that, but he didn't want to go to respite. He didn't want to leave me. We were like two peas in a pod.’

Once, Farren ‘hit a carer’ at day care.

‘And because he was aggressive, they called an ambulance and the police arrived.’

Farren was taken to a hospital clinic where there were ‘more outbursts in behaviour’.

‘Sadly, we got involved with the child safety system.’ 

The agency placed Farren under a child protection order claiming that the family couldn’t handle his ‘condition or aggression’.

‘They split a loving caring family up … And things just went downhill from there.’

Child services promised that Farren would have ‘his own home and get around-the-clock support’.

‘They said he'd get all the medical he needs. Get all behavioural support he needs. “You guys would get a bit of a break.”’

None of that happened, Lucien said. Instead, the agency put Farren in a cabin in a caravan park with ‘youth care workers supporting him’.

‘And he just freaked out. He was a toddler, cognitively. He couldn't understand why he was away from his family and his siblings. He just lashed out at everything and everybody.’

Support workers left him screaming, Lucien said.

‘There was no care plan. He should have been supported with disability specific trained carers, but he wasn't … He needed someone to reassure him, to care for him, to help him understand what was going on. And of course, nobody could … For two years, he was treated so very poorly.’

There was neglect, physical and psychological abuse, and chemical and physical restraint over that time, Lucien said. Farren developed scabies, head lice, a skin picking disorder, an infection under his foreskin and severe anal tearing. He would often ‘stick his fingers down his throat to induce vomiting’ or cut himself.

Once, when an ambulance was called, ‘three police officers pinned him down, handcuffed him and, bleeding, they threw him in a paddy wagon’.

‘At the hospital, they used security guards to pin him down … while he's injected with something.’

Farren would often spend several days in hospital.

‘All that time as a family we were waiting for disability services to come up with some funding.’

In hospital reports, his doctors said ‘that without the proper level of supervision and support, [Farren] is likely to suffer further harm, further hospitalisation, malnutrition and infection’.

Farren was eventually returned to his parent’s care, but now with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

He died a couple of years later after having a seizure. Lucien said it was because he still didn’t have ‘all the supports that he needed’.

‘They took away three and a half years of our family life with the child safety stuff while we're waiting for disability to come up with funding …  And you know, it's more than a tragedy. It really is.’