Witness statement of Ms EJ for the Foster Care Hearing 16 June 2022
***Distressing content warning***
Ms EJ was taken into State care in 1990s and gave evidence of her experience in a foster home she used to call the ‘House of Horrors’. Her foster caregivers were held in high regard in the community, but behind closed doors Ms EJ was sexually abused by her foster father and his son. Ms EJ was exploited as a free laborer on the family farm and suffered both physical and emotional abuse. Ms EJ shared her attempts as a child to alert social workers and police to her abuse, highlighting a lack of advocacy and support for children and their voices in the care system.