Child safety staff suspended after bombshell review finds foster kids housed with triple-murderer Regina Arthurell

A bombshell review has found NSW authorities ignored a helpline warning when they sent two vulnerable children to live with a convicted triple-murderer – with two child protection workers now suspended.

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) found staff ignored red flags in December last year when a person contacted a child protection helpline raising the alarm about the triple murderer Regina Arthurell – formerly known as Reginald – living with a child.

The warning was ignored based on assumptions about Arthurell’s age, that he was in a wheelchair and supervision and a second child was sent to live with him in March.

The review found policies and procedures were not followed and relevant checks of the child protection case management system were not completed.

“The offender’s history stood out as a clear indicator that they should not have been residing with children without a thorough, holistic risk assessment,” DCJ Secretary Michael Tidball said in the report.

“The safety of the children was not placed at the centre of decision-making.

“The review identified significant failures in casework practice, highlighting shortcomings in risk identification and assessment, triage, and safeguards within the child protection response for the children.

“The DCJ Secretary has referred the review to DCJ’s internal conduct branch as part of a misconduct process.”

Arthurell was convicted of stabbing his stepfather to death in 1974, killing a man during a robbery in 1981 and bashing his fiancee to death with a piece of wood in 1995.

During his 24-year sentence for killing his fiancee, he transitioned to become a woman.

Arthurell had been living with two foster children until last month when radio station 2GB revealed the shocking situation on air.

Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington told 2GB two DCJ staff members have been suspended and were facing misconduct processes.

No findings have been made as part of this process.

She said it was a shocking situation that should never have happened.

“I was just so sorry that it had,” she said.

“I mean, not only have they made a determination based on unverified information about age and capacity, you know, the fellow was a serial killer.”

The minister said a person made the wrong decision against department policies and procedures.

“To be really clear, we had capacity in the system at the time for an investigation to be undertaken, we had the resources,” she said.

“It was wrong calls made at the wrong time, but they are working in very difficult, complex environments.

“Our DCJ child protection caseworkers see the worst of the worst in our society, they walk into homes where parents are harming their children.

“There are difficult decisions made daily by our case workers, but we do expect them to follow department policies and procedures, and that’s what didn’t happen on these occasions that led to this awful (situation).”