There have been arrests in Victoria following an investigation into 28 people suspected of preying on children in care and grooming them for sex.
Details of the investigation, which began in 2013 and ends later this month, were outlined on Tuesday at a royal commission hearing in Sydney into child sexual abuse.
Katy Haire, deputy secretary of the department of health and human services in Victoria, said a joint exercise between police and her department to uncover child sexual exploitation has had significant results.
In this particular exercise, 28 suspects were investigated and nine matters resulted in arrests with charges laid for grooming, sexual penetration of a child under 16 and rape, Ms Haire said.
Twelve matters are still under investigation.
Ms Haire is on a panel of representatives from state and territory child protection departments being questioned by the royal commission on current policies and procedures to protect children in out-of-home care.
She said combining the expertise of a child protection worker with the police sex crimes unit in Victoria had made a big difference to the way they tackled sexual exploitation of children in out-of-home care.
In reply to the commission's Gail Furness SC, she said the approach hadn't created anything new but was using elements that existed in both systems in a new way.
She said none of those charged out of the 2013 investigation had yet appeared in court.
Ms Haire also said children targeted by the suspected predators were in out-of-home care but the sexual exploitation happened outside the placement by "people who were preying on the children and offering them some gain or enticing them into sexual behaviour".
She said the joint exercise resulted in an effective outcome not just for the criminal justice system but also for the children involved.
"Safety of those children has been protected all the way through the investigation".
Ms Haire and her counterparts across the country are in the second week of evidence to the commission which is examining foster care, care by relatives or care in small group residential homes.
These are collectively known as out-of-home care and have replaced institutional care for children who can no longer live safely in their own homes.
There are up to 50,000 children in Australia in out-of-home care and the number is increasing.
Share
