WA Police concede bail for an accused sex offender should have been opposed, after his 11-year-old alleged victim takes her own life when when his bail is granted.
"In general, bail is considered on a case by case basis and aligned with the bail act, however an early assessment of this case, and the seriousness of the offences, tells me that police bail should have been opposed and not considered," she said.
"This will ultimately be a matter for the coroner, but I'm here today to say that WA Police will take ownership of any issues where we can improve to prevent something like this occurring again."Communities Minister Simone McGurk said it was now a priority to find out what supports were in place for the girl and what went wrong.
"It will be my priority within the department to understand what they knew when, and what supports were in place," she said."If the supports were not adequate, what more we can do?""My understanding is there was an element of counselling and some supports that were available, so we need to look at if that was appropriate," he said.Opposition health spokesman Zak Kirkup said the case showed systemic failures in WA.
"When we see the scale of Aboriginal youth suicide in Western Australia, it's very clear there is a systemic failure in our state," he said. "I think something needs to be done very significantly as a response from the Government in relation to this."
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