Doctors said the boy had been left with a brain injury and a large visible scar following surgery, and he has needed constant skin grafts, surgeries and compression bandages to treat his burns.
Police visited the couple’s home after being notified of the child’s injuries and reported it to be “extremely unhygienic”.
They interviewed the mother, who lied and said the boy was having a fake seizure and fell back on the floor and hit his head.
“I would never hurt a child. I would f—ing kill myself if I did,” she told police.
“I used to hit my kids back in the day, but then I realised I was getting like my mother.”
But police found text messages regarding a separate incident in which the foster mother told her partner: “The c—’s broke the door.”
Her partner of 14 years, and father of their three biological children, responded: “Just don’t lay into him any more. We can’t risk shit going wrong. Just lock him in the bedroom.”
The court heard the child was born in New South Wales in 2015, where he became a ward of the state and relocated to live with a family in Queensland.
When the placement didn’t work out, the child’s biological mother said she had a brother in WA who may be able to offer him a home.
The child went to live with the couple and their three biological children in a Wheatbelt town in September 2022.
The court was told the child should have had hour-long video calls with both his biological parents regularly.
However, they told police they had noticed the calls were becoming shorter and the boy’s demeanour changing in the seven months he lived in WA.
They also later told police the boy would appear on the video calls wearing long clothing, despite the warm weather, and police later noted the boy had many bruises all over his body.
The seven-year-old had previously been diagnosed with autism, ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder, and the court was told his foster parents struggled to parent him.
However, ahead of their sentencing next week, District Court judge Linda Petrusa said on Thursday that “both offenders agreed to take him on”, and had the option to “get assistance or give him back” but did neither.
The court also heard the boy was taken to doctors for medical care on five separate occasions during the seven months he lived with them.
On one occasion he was knocked over by dogs, causing him to hit his head on a concrete path.
The foster father’s lawyer, Hamish Glenister, told the court his client had been the subject of attacks in prison after fellow inmates thought he was responsible for setting a baby on fire.
Both offenders’ identities were suppressed by the court in case it led to the identification of the victim or further prison assaults.
All three of their biological children are now in the care of the Department of Communities.
