Court orders girl be told about paedophile father
A Queensland judge has ruled a five-year-old girl be told her father is a convicted paedophile.
According to News Limited reports, the decision, by Justice Peter Murphy, is designed to help the girl understand why her father is not permitted to have unsupervised contact with his daughter.
The Family Court was told the girl, whose mother was teenage runaway, was residing with three registered paedophiles before authorities removed her.
The girl's paedophile father had been sexually abused by his dad as a child before killing himself in front of his son before the trial reached court.
Justice Murphy said the girl's father had showed risk factors pertaining to his relationship with his daughter, including denial of his own sexual offences.
"In light of the age of the mother and the father's history and the journey that she has already undertaken, it is plainly in her interest," Justice Murphy said.
"(The girl) is yet very young, the journey for her already has been somewhat difficult and much might yet happen in this young child's life that may need intervention."
The judge also ruled a an independent children's lawyer recommended a youth mental health services worker should be the one to inform the girl of the judge's decision "in child appropriate language".
Centre for Human Potential psychologist Paul Martin said telling the girl could have a significant mental impact on the child.
"She would have no way of processing the information and it would create a mistrust of that parent and any adult," he said.
