During an inquest held in Darwin, court officials hear that from the former head of the Northern Territory Department of Families that a young girl who died while under the care of a foster family had been failed by the system.

Deborah Melville died at her Palmerston foster home due to blood poisoning stemming from a massive infection in her leg.

Forensic specialists later discovered 1.5 litres of pus in her thigh coming from the infection.

Toni Leanne Melville and Denise Carmen Reynolds, the girl’s foster parents, had been acquitted of manslaughter charges in August 2008. 

Phillip Strickland QC, assistant to the coroner, said during his opening statements today that the court would later hear evidence that the 12-year-old child had been found lying outside the family home with ants crawling in her mouth shortly before her death.

On July 12 2007, Deborah Melville suffered a cardiac arrest due to septicaemia, while in the backyard of her Palmerston home. Septicaemia or sepsis, is a massive blood infection which is lethal when left untreated

The court inquest is expected to hear details of complaints made by the Melville children’s teachers at Humpty Doo Primary School. Some said that the Melville kids often did not have shoes, showed up in school not having been fed and had a stale urine odor to them.

Deborah had four siblings living in the same house. They would stay in the lounge room of a three bedroom house. The court heard that the home housed as many as 14 other people, including the seven children of Ms Reynolds.

In their statement to the inquiry, Deborah’s siblings revealed they had been regularly hit with a piece of wood and received a different treatment from the other kids in the household. One of Deborah’s siblings even described how they had wished to run away.