The trial of Perth parents accused of starving their teenage daughter heard she ‘faded away’ in front of her teacher.

A ballet teacher who raised the alarm about a severely malnourished teenager told a Perth court the girl was “wasting away before my eyes” but her parents repeatedly ignored her concerns.

The girl’s parents, from Perth’s wealthy western suburbs, are appearing in Perth District Court accused of starving their daughter, who weighed just 27kg when she was eventually hospitalized aged 17.

ABC is not naming the girl’s parents or teachers to protect her identity.

The dance instructor told the court that in 2019 she tried to persuade her parents to take their daughter to a nutritionist because of her thin appearance and lack of strength, including “wiry arms”.

“I suspected this child from the very beginning.”

The instructor said she tried to reduce the girl’s dance hours from eight to four out of concern for her health, but was “angry” to learn the girl had been enrolled in a different dance school in 2020, fearing she would still dance eight. hours per week.

The teenager seemed to shrink in size

A dance teacher from the school also gave evidence on Wednesday, telling the court she had “serious concerns” about the girl’s welfare.

The student was “basically skin and bones” and it was “horrible to see her like that,” the teacher said.

She was shorter and narrower than other dancers her age, “especially in the shoulders and hips”, and lacked muscle tone.

She said the girl was “underweight” and appeared to have been losing weight for a year.

“I felt it getting smaller,” she said.

But like her old ballet teacher, the new teacher was rebuffed by the girl’s parents when she tried to raise her concerns, despite a heated discussion with her father in which she told him his daughter was “just a bone.”

The teacher said she also called the Department of Child Welfare several times in 2020 to share her concerns.

The girl’s mother, who claimed her daughter was 14 when she was actually 16, said her daughter had always been small, a premature baby and “we don’t want to blow her up”, the teacher told the court.

Further attempts to raise problems with the mother, especially those related to possible lack of protein in the child’s diet, were also rejected.

The trial continues before Judge Linda Black.

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