A teenage girl who was allegedly raped by a 13-year-old male mental health patient at Perth Children’s Hospital has opened up about her horrific ordeal.
Florence (not her real name) and her parents told her story to the ABC in the hope that this can prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.
She was 13 years old at the time of the alleged assault last year and felt that an interview about it could be detrimental to her mental health, so she wrote about it.
“Knowing I’m not alone really breaks me,” Florence wrote. “We needed to be protected.”
Mixed mental health units are common in Australia, but Florence didn’t know that and was shocked to find boys in the same area as her when she was admitted.
A teenage girl who was allegedly raped by a male mental health patient at Perth Children’s Hospital last year has spoken out about her shock at the ordeal (stock image)
Florence woke up to find a male patient in her hospital room – earlier that day he allegedly told her he was going to drug the nurses so he could do ‘things’ with her.
“I was just frozen, knowing he was so much bigger than me,” she said.
After the alleged rape, Florence waited for someone to come help her, but said it took hours for someone to check on her.
“I fell asleep with my knees to my chest, hoping he wouldn’t come back in.”
She had become a patient at the hospital after allegedly being raped by a stranger she met online three months earlier.
Florence’s parents were afraid she might try to commit suicide and took her to the mental health unit.
“That was the worst day of our lives, or so we thought,” said her father Luke (not his real name).
Her mother Rachel (not her real name) said: ‘I remember leaving her (in hospital) and crying all the way home because as a mother you just want to be there for your baby.’
The parents do not understand how an alleged second assault in a hospital could have happened.
‘Absolutely heartbreaking that the same thing happened to her in less than three months. That really broke me,” Luke said.
A year later, they say they still have no real information about what happened to Florence.
“We had to fight so hard to find out the basic details of what happened to our little girl that night,” Rachel said.
A review of the attack in Florence found that staff on duty did not carry out their hourly checks between 12.30pm and 3.30am as they had ‘isolated’ in the nurses’ station.
Rachel and Luke said they were told this was because the nurses were afraid of the male patient allegedly attacking their daughter.
‘There is 24 hour security in that hospital. I don’t understand why this happened, why no one was called,” Luke said.
The family has not been able to obtain CCTV footage from that night, but the review shows that the vision at 12.33pm showed the male patient crawling across the floor and entering Florence’s room.
There are also some discrepancies between what the review showed – the nurses remained at their posts – and what the notes on the CCTV footage showed – some nurses were seen walking around checking patients’ rooms.
The family believes that they should be allowed to see the video footage, because that is the only way they can understand what happened.
Valerie Jovanovic, CEO of the Child and Adolescent Health Service in Western Australia, told Daily Mail Australia that “immediate and comprehensive support was provided to those affected and referrals were made to the relevant authorities.”
“A full investigation was immediately carried out by the Child and Adolescent Health Service and independent investigations were carried out by the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist and the Mental Health Advocacy Service – both independent statutory bodies,” she said.
‘Recommended actions have now been taken and work continues.’
She added that “$7.7 million was recently allocated to make changes to the department…I want to reassure families that patient safety remains our top priority.”
Florence’s parents are afraid that she will no longer be able to go to a hospital for care in the future.
Florence was 13 at the time of the alleged assault at Perth Children’s Hospital (pictured) and felt being interviewed about it could be damaging to her mental health, so she wrote about it.
“When she’s older, what if she wants a baby? How is that ever going to work for her, with the extreme trauma she’s been through?’ Rachel said.
Their daughter said she doesn’t blame the male patient who allegedly attacked her; she said the hospital had a duty to protect her.
“Even though that boy destroyed a part of me, I know he was also failed by the system.”
This story and others will air on Triple J’s Hack Program on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.