Authorities, according to locals in Footscray, have been accused of failing a 12-year-old girl charged with murder.
According to a youth worker, the 12-year-old girl accused of murdering a 37-year-old woman in Melbourne last week was let down by the system meant to care for her.
On Thursday, the girl faced murder charges after a woman was fatally stabbed at a Barkly Street Footscray apartment complex around 2 am.
For legal reasons, we cannot disclose the names of the girl or the victim, and their relationship remains uncertain. Samantha Cafaro, a youth worker, initially expressed concerns about the girl late last year after encountering her in the area.
Samantha Cafaro revealed, "What we had heard, in so many words, was that she was selling herself to older men for money. When I first heard it, it was hard to believe because you don't expect that to happen in the world or in 2023."
"We were told by the police that they couldn't intervene or approach her or stop these men. We asked, 'Isn't there anything more you can do? This is a child.' But our pleas fell on deaf ears," she said in an interview with 7.30.
Cafaro made seven calls to the police, and a colleague brought the girl's situation to the attention of child services. She emphasized that what occurred last week could have been prevented, stating, "Of course it could have been prevented. If we could have addressed this a year ago, placed the child in services that would have kept her in school and engaged in other programs, she wouldn't be in this situation now."
"No child wakes up and says, 'This is my life. This is what I want for my future,'" Cafaro concluded.
Describing the situation as a "time bomb," Ms. Cafaro's boss, youth worker Les Twentyman, with 30 years of experience working with young people in Melbourne's western suburbs, stated, "It's tragic. It was a time bomb everyone knew was going to go off, and it did. That girl was reported to me in November last year by Samantha."
"We were all watching this kid, and no one was doing anything about it. What's a 12-year-old doing with a 37-year-old at 2 am in the morning, especially when this kid was in state care?" expressed Mr. Twentyman, highlighting concerns about the lack of intervention.
He emphasized the severe under-resourcing of the state's police, mental health, and child protection services, stating, "[There's] not enough resources, and everyone thinks someone else is doing it. If everyone was doing their bit, this crime may not have happened, but they weren't doing their bit, and this is the outcome."
Dr. Berhan Ahmed, who oversees a youth and community services not-for-profit in the area, also reached out to the police in recent months, urging them to assist the 12-year-old.
"What happened was an outcome of no action; if there was action, this girl would have been helped to be in a process of moving forward," Dr Ahmed told 7.30.
Dr Ahmed said he has written to the Victorian government twice in the last year asking them for help, to no avail.
"The police, sometimes they come and sometimes they don't. And then most of the businesses, they continue to call police," Dr Ahmed said.
"The police have got other priorities as well, they've got some other places, you've got no choice but to accept the reality.
"It's a clock ticking. Something is going to happen, and this will happen again, and again, if we don't deal with these problems."
'Things were getting out of control'
ABC's 7.30 spoke to a number of people in the area who cold-called police to report the 12-year-old's increasingly erratic behaviour in recent weeks.
Chris Tabone runs a barber shop in the area and said he spoke to police a week ago when he saw the girl looking extremely unwell and in need of urgent help.
"I reported extra information in regards to what I've seen over the past four, four to five weeks with that young girl," Mr Tabone said.
"And that's something [that] needed to be done because this was the start of something bigger."
Traders in Footscray say they are dealing with an increase in anti-social behaviour and not enough is being done about it.
From his shop, he often has a front row seat to the antisocial behaviour and crime taking place on the street.
"We have a great community here. And that's what I've enjoyed the most out of it. However, we do have a lot of challenges," Mr Tabone said.
"Drug use and alcohol abuse that is happening during the day in broad daylight, that turns to something as the day progresses, they get worse and worse.
"We're seeing incidents on the regular here."
Caleb Baker runs a bar in Footscray, and along with Mr Tabone and other traders, have been trying to work with local police to make the area safer.
"Around six or seven weeks ago, we had a meeting with the police minister, with the local traders, a lot of the local traders and local MP," Mr Baker said.
"All the different traders put forward was that ... people need more help, and there needs to be a more long-term strategy to fix these issues.
"And ... we need more help and more support from the police."
The Victorian Minister for Children and local representative for the area in the Legislative Council, Lizzie Blandthorn, declined the ABC's request for interview citing the active police investigation into the alleged murder.
In a statement, a Victorian government spokesperson said: "This is an horrific situation for everyone involved and our thoughts are with the affected loved ones. As this is an active police investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The last time Ms Cafaro saw the girl was about a week before the alleged murder.
"This child has been failed every step of the way, leading up to the most horrific of crimes and the most horrific of circumstances and now two lives are lost."
