WA Court of Appeal finds judge's conduct amounted to 'miscarriage of justice' in Perth parents' starvation case

The conduct of the judge who jailed the Perth parents accused of starving their daughter to the point of severe malnutrition amounted to a "miscarriage of justice", WA's Court of Appeal has found.

The girl weighed just 28 kilograms when she was hospitalised in 2021 at the age of 17, after doctors warned her low weight put her at imminent risk of death.

Her parents, who cannot be identified, were found guilty in 2024 of engaging in conduct which resulted in her suffering with her father sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail and her mother to five years.

Her father was also found guilty of forging his daughter's birth certificate.

The pair appealed their convictions and sentences in 2025.

In April, their convictions were set aside, and they were granted bail ahead of a retrial.

'Unfair trial'

On Friday, the Court of Appeal published its reasons concluding the trial was "unfair".

It said "regrettably" this was one of the rare cases in which the conduct of the judge amounted to a "miscarriage of justice" and offered several justifications for that ruling.

Firstly, the mother became unwell in the second week of the trial and was certified by a doctor as unfit to attend court for two days.

However Judge Linda Black refused a request to adjourn proceedings and continued the trial with the mother in another room where she could not be seen by anyone in the courtroom other than the judge.

The "departure from [the mother's] right to be present in court throughout her trial was not justified by any lawful exception, and, on its own, gave rise to a miscarriage of justice," the judgment read.

Secondly, while each of the parents was giving evidence, Judge Black "repeatedly intervened or interrupted" which the court noted a "fair-minded observer" could conclude the judge viewed the parents as evasive, uncooperative or unreliable.

Those interventions were "such a departure from the due and orderly process of a fair trial as to amount to a miscarriage of justice."

Additionally, the court ruled the judge "intervened" in the defence's decision whether or not to call the daughter to give evidence at the trial. The girl ultimately did not testify.

A retrial is now expected to be called.