A 12-year-old girl charged with the alleged murder of a 37-year-old woman engaged in sex work for older men was a ‘ticking time bomb that everyone knew was going to go off and is what happened,” local educators said. police.
Emergency services were called to an apartment complex on Barkly Street in Footscray on Thursday, November 16, where an elderly woman was allegedly stabbed to death at 2am.
Samantha Cafaro, a youth worker, was watching the young girl and understood that she was selling her body to older men.
“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,” she told ABC’s 7:30 p.m. show Monday night.
Ms Cafaro said she called the police seven times over the course of a year to report the situation, but each time she was told “there’s nothing they can do, they can’t approach her and that ‘They can’t stop these men.’
Ms Cafaro’s boss Les Twentyman said the girl looked like a “time bomb” ready to explode.
Youth worker Samantha Cafaro has contacted Victoria Police seven times in a year for help for a 12-year-old girl who is now accused of murdering an older woman.
Emergency services were called to an apartment complex on Barkly Street in Footscray where they found a 37-year-old woman believed to have been stabbed to death on November 16.
Ms Cafaro told the ABC: “This child failed every step of the way that led to the most horrific crime in the most horrific circumstances and now two lives are lost.”
With enough help and a proper care plan, Ms. Cafaro believes they could have gotten the girl back to school and prevented the older woman’s death.
Ms Cafaro reported the girl to Mr Twentyman in November 2022, at which point they desperately tried to get her the help she needed.
Mr Twentyman has worked with young people in Melbourne’s western suburbs for 30 years and said Victoria’s police, mental health and child protection services were severely under-resourced.
“It’s tragic, it was a time bomb that everyone knew was going to explode and that’s what happened… If everyone did their part, this crime could not have happened. “may not have happened,” he said.
Ms Cafaro last saw the girl a week before the alleged murder and since then departments have remained tight-lipped about the situation.
Ms Cafaro’s boss, Les Twentyman, said the girl was a “time bomb” bent on self-destruction and that, despite selling her body, the police would not help her.
The incident took place outside the former Royal Hotel pub, which is now considered a hostel and several sources claim the girl was engaged in sex work.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said its thoughts were with those affected by this “horrible situation” but no further comment could be provided due to the active police investigation.
Victorian Children’s Minister and local representative for the region in the Legislative Council, Lizzie Blandthorn, also declined to comment on the matter.
The alleged murder of the 37-year-old happened outside the former Royal Hotel pub, which is now considered a hostel.
It appears that an altercation broke out on the upper floors, which now house apartments.
