{"id":81657,"date":"2026-08-27T16:30:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/81657\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:30:55","slug":"queensland-police-investigating-alleged-sexual-assault-of-teenage-girl-in-residential-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/81657\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland police investigating alleged sexual assault of teenage girl in residential care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Queensland police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in residential care, which the child safety minister has described as &#8220;heinous&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The allegations came the same day the government introduced a bill into parliament, to create a new agency to protect children and vulnerable people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Officers have said the alleged sexual assault occurred at a residence west of Brisbane last week and was reported to police a day later on August 21.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I can tell you that that matter is under investigation, it is being taken extremely seriously as you would expect, involving a young person \u2014 some of our most vulnerable people in our community,&#8221; Queensland Police Service Acting Deputy Commissioner Rhys Wildman said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Amanda Camm speaking at a press conference.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/25cd4a917832b4e00eeb0a7f64726e92.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Amanda Camm says the government takes all allegations seriously. (ABC News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm said she and her director-general are briefed on any report or allegation of sexual assault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Can I say how heinous those allegations are, and particularly allegations around a child in child safety and a child in the residential care system,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;We take seriously those allegations, and we will go out, reach out to those providers, and we will conduct our own quality assurance to make sure that the safeguards have been put in place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A middle aged woman with blonde hair\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/eb3df60361f306ef97c6ab79c7cf771b.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Child safety advocate Hetty Johnston says sexual assault of children and vulnerable people is common. (ABC News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston said while any sexual assault was &#8220;heartbreaking&#8221;, she was not surprised to hear of a vulnerable child being targeted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The fact that as a community, we&#8217;ve got nowhere to go with these children except in a resicare situation is even sadder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not surprising, and it won&#8217;t be the only one.&#8221;Dedicated &#8216;safeguarding agency&#8217; to be established<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The government introduced the Queensland Protection Commission (QPC) bill into parliament on Wednesday, aimed at improving the protection of children from sexual abuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Its establishment was a recommendation of <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-12-08\/qld-ashley-paul-griffith-child-death-review-board\/106113728\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106113728\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a review into one of Australia&#8217;s most notorious paedophiles.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A report by the Child Death Review Board found there were more than 18 points where Ashley Paul Griffith, who was sentenced to life behind bars in 2024 after pleading guilty to more than 300 charges of child sexual abuse, could have been detected or his offending disrupted earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;That is what the Queensland Protection Commission is there to fix,&#8221; said Attorney-General Deb Frecklington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Frecklington said it would be the state&#8217;s first dedicated child and vulnerable persons &#8220;safeguarding agency&#8221;, and will bring together multiple departments under one roof, like education, health police, child safety and youth justice.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A woman in a purple suit speaking at a lectern.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787848255_541_c0f6ea9333baada51b3b14fe41b6255c.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Deb Frecklington says the QPC will bring multiple government agencies under one roof. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;It will create an intelligence hub where information sharing will be a priority, where we can identify predators and we can take action against those predators,&#8221; Ms Frecklington said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Frecklington also said, under the QPC, penalties for those who do not report to the Working with Children Check Scheme would be doubled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She said since the government took office in October 2024, 31 blue cards had been withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The attorney-general has promised the Commissioner of the QPC will be independent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Frecklington said the commissioner would be supported by two deputy commissioners, with one of those roles required to be filled by an &#8220;Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person&#8221; or by a person who has &#8220;demonstrated ability or experience in working with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The QPC is expected to start work in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in residential care, which the child&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5480,22,21,6310,129268,10489,211,212,230,2444,70140,1712,14705],"class_list":["post-81657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-amanda-camm","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-child-safety","tag-child-safety-minister","tag-deb-frecklington","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-police","tag-queensland-police-service","tag-residential-care","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-assault-investigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}