Parents Jailed for Starving Teen Daughter to Keep Her Young

perth - Australian parents sentenced to prison for deliberately starving their daughter to prevent her from growing up.

Parents Sentenced for Abuse

In Australia, a father and mother have been convicted and sentenced to prison for deliberately starving their daughter, who was found severely underweight and behaving like a nine-year-old.

The teenage girl, who was only 17 but looked and acted much younger due to her parents' actions, was discovered by her dance teachers to be extremely thin and malnourished.

Her isolation from other children and exposure only to ballet classes contributed to her stunted development. The parents even falsified her birth records to make her appear younger.

After intervention from authorities, the girl was hospitalized weighing only 27 kilograms and measuring 1.47 meters, similar to much younger ballerinas in her class.

Despite the daughter's plea to drop charges, stating her dependency on her parents, the court sentenced the father to six and a half years and the mother to five years in prison.

The girl, who has since gained some weight, continues to struggle with the aftermath of her parents' abusive actions.