An Australian teenage girl at the centre of one of Western Australia’s most shocking child neglect cases has expressed deep fear and uncertainty about her future as her parents serve prison sentences for starving and isolating her for years.

Oracle Intelligence reports that the 17-year-old, who weighed just 27 kilograms when she was hospitalized in 2021, pleaded tearfully with the court not to jail her parents, saying she would “end up homeless” and could not cope without them. “I love my parents very much. They are the most important people in my life,” she wrote in a statement read to the court. “If my parents go to prison, I don’t think I will be able to cope.”

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Despite her plea, the court sentenced her 48-year-old mother to five years in prison and her father to six-and-a-half years, finding them guilty of reckless neglect and forgery of their daughter’s birth certificate to conceal her true age. The pair, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, kept their daughter on a strict vegan diet, isolated from society, and under constant supervision, depriving her of basic nutrition, medical care, and social interaction.

Doctors at Perth Children’s Hospital said the girl — once an aspiring ballerina — was dangerously malnourished and could have died without urgent medical care. When admitted, she was diagnosed with grade 4 malnutrition, had stunted growth, and weighed no more than an average nine-year-old.

During her recovery, hospital staff observed she was treated like a small child, still watching The Wiggles and Thomas the Tank Engine, and receiving a Barbie doll for her 17th birthday. Despite this, assessments showed she had no cognitive impairment — only the deep psychological scars of long-term control and neglect.

Judge Linda Black described the parents’ actions as “wilful blindness of the most extreme kind,” saying they ignored repeated warnings from doctors, teachers, and community members. “I cannot accept that you needed someone to point out that your daughter was starving — that she was fading away,” the judge said.

The girl’s parents claimed she was “naturally slender” and resisted medical advice, even laughing off warnings that she could suffer cardiac arrest. Over 50 days in hospital, she gained 7 kilograms and grew 3.4 centimetres, showing just how severely she had been undernourished.

As her parents appeal their convictions, the teenager remains torn between love and trauma — struggling to reconcile her dependency on them with the reality of their actions. While now in state care, her letters and testimony reveal a young woman still emotionally bound to the people who caused her suffering, uncertain of what her life will look like without them.

Her story, which shocked even seasoned child protection workers, underscores the devastating psychological impact of prolonged neglect — and the complex emotional ties that can persist between victims and their abusers.