Sexual abuse in Victoria’s out-of-home care system has been described as “endemic” after leaked documents revealed hundreds of reports of alleged rape, indecent assault and exploitation of minors in the year to March.

Internal documents reveal a total of 342 critical incidents of a sexual nature reported in the state’s child protection system, which houses children who are removed from their parents due to significant risk of harm.



The total includes 98 alleged rapes, 96 reports of indecent sexual assault and 73 alleged incidents of sexual exploitation, where children are abused in exchange for cash or other gifts, the ABC reported.



Nearly three-quarters of the reported incidents took place in residential care homes, where about 500 children are currently placed. The small units usually house about four children each, with staff rostered on eight-hour shifts, including just one overnight.



Sandie de Wolf, the chief of children’s charity Berry Street, said the reports of abuse were an “indictment on the system”.



“Children are not removed from their families unless there’s very significant harm, so physical, sexual or emotional abuse, or severe family violence. So they've already been harmed by the adults who should have protected them,” she said.



She said the system was “under enormous pressure” from increasing numbers of children being removed from their parents, coupled with a “crisis” of decreasing numbers of foster carers. The result was children under 12 being placed in residential care against the Victorian government’s own guidelines.



Funding for the department of human services was also capped, de Wolf said, so the system was having to cater for more children without a commensurate bump in resources.



An auditor general’s report in March found the residential care system had been “operating over capacity since at least 2008”.



“The residential care system is unable to respond to the level of demand and growing complexity of children’s needs,” the report found. “This puts at risk efforts to protect the child from harm, protect their rights and promote their development.”

The leaked statistics follow earlier reports that organised gangs of men were preying on children in state care, highlighted by the case of 22-year-old Emran Dad, a Shepparton man who police alleged traded sex for cash and cigarettes with children as young as 13. He pled guilty in 2012 and was jailed for three years.

The extent of abuse within the system was reflected in the case of two siblings, both aged under 10, who were placed in state care in 2011 after reports they were being physically abused in their home.



The girl was sexually assaulted by two other children on numerous occasions, and has since tried to take her own life. Her brother was also alleged raped by an older boy.



The Victorian community services minister, Mary Wooldridge, said that cases of abuse and neglect “are always distressing”, but said that for some children, “residential care is the best option”.



“Children who come into the care of the state have experienced extreme trauma and often cannot be housed with extended family or foster families because of their complex and difficult behaviours,” she said.



The opposition spokeswoman for children and community services, Jenny Mikakos, said the figures were “absolutely shocking”. “From what I'm hearing, sexual exploitation appears to have become endemic in about the last two years,” she said.



Victoria’s children and young people commissioner, Bernie Geary, said he was aware of the statistics and was in the process of reviewing the issues and circumstances of sexual assault in residential care, with a report to parliament due in October.



“When we’re in a situation where we want to take kids away from harm, we tend to go for shelter first,” Geary said. “But shelter is only one part of nurturing, so we need to ensure that a young person is both nurtured and sheltered, and I’m conducting my review with that in mind.”