Horrifying images taken by a neighbour of the squalid conditions the boys lived in. Photo / Supplied
Horrifying images taken by a neighbour of the squalid conditions the boys lived in. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: Disturbing content
Authorities are facing critical questions over the circumstances that led to two teen boys being found living in squalid conditions in a family home in Brisbane.
On Thursday, horrifying pictures and video emerged showing two intellectually disabled teenagers subjected to filthy living conditions, wearing nappies and playing on an air mattress in a locked room in the Stafford property.
Now, serious questions have been raised about how the devastating situation was allowed to occur, with neighbours saying they pleaded with police and child safety authorities to intervene.
Neighbours told the Courier Mail the Department of Child Safety (DOCS) had visited the property before but the case was closed last year, with authorities apparently satisfied there were no threats to the children. Queensland Police detectives are now working with other government agencies to determine what happened.
The shocking scene came to light on Thursday when police were called to a property in Brisbane's north where they found a 49-year-old man dead inside, having suffered an apparent heart attack.
Officers then heard noises coming from a bedroom, its doorknob removed and replaced with a dirty spoon to keep it jammed closed, where they discovered the young men, aged 17 and 19, inside.
The boys, who suffer severe autism and are non-verbal, were naked, wearing only soiled nappies, in a distressed state and appeared to be malnourished.
Paramedics rushed the pair to Prince Charles Hospital, where they are believed to be in a stable condition.
Following the discovery, neighbours lifted the lid on the shocking state of the home and described the heartbreaking lives the boys lived.
Horrifying images taken by a neighbour of the squalid conditions the boys lived in. Photo / Supplied
The Courier-Mail newspaper said it has reviewed footage and photographs of the boys playing in a locked room with a small air mattress on the floor, surrounded by filth.
"You'd hear them screaming nearly all the time because he'd lock them in that room," a neighbour told the newspaper.
"They wouldn't be wearing clothes, only just loaded diapers if they were lucky.
"You'd sometimes look over (the fence) and see them playing with their own faeces and pushing it through the mozzie screens."
In another image, the boys can be seen sitting in the home's backyard with a broken beer bottle next to them.
The neighbour has lived in the street for three years and said a number of locals had tried to get help for the children, worried about their welfare.
"I tried to reach out to police and the Department of Child Safety, but nothing was ever done," the neighbour said.
The house where two intellectually disabled teens were found locked in a room, with their dead father also inside the property. Photo / News Corp
It's claimed that the disturbing pictures and video were taken two years ago and passed on to authorities. The Department of Child Safety has been approached to comment.
A spokesman for Child Safety Minister Di Farmer declined to comment and referred news.com.au to police.
A Queensland Police spokesman didn't respond to the claim that neighbours had contacted police about the boys' condition, but said: "Detectives from Boondall Child Protection Investigation Unit along with other government agencies are working together around the circumstances surrounding the care of two teenage boys with special needs discovered when emergency services attended a Stafford house yesterday."
A furious neighbour quoted Farmer's remarks yesterday, when she described the situation as "horrific".
"If you think the situation was horrific, where was the department to give support and to help them?" she told the Courier-Mail.
A local told the Daily Mail that Child Safety "needs a kick up the ass because they haven't been checking on him, clearly".
"If they were helping, this might not have happened."
Another neighbour, who knew the father, told the ABC that he kept chickens in the kitchen and said the house "stunk".
"The boys were always locked in the room, the door was kicked in and there were chickens in the house," he said.
Pictures from the backyard of the home show items strewn everywhere, including children's toys, clothes, an old microwave and paint buckets.
The father had been caring for the boys on his own for more than a decade and his health had deteriorated significantly in recent years, according to reports.
A neighbour who used to babysit the children when they were younger, but hadn't seen them in many years, told the Daily Mail that she confronted the father after hearing about concerns for their welfare from others.
"He said, 'Of course I'm not doing anything like that'," she told the website. "I think he might've just been too ashamed to admit he couldn't look after them anymore."
The man was not "a monster" but a victim too, she insisted.
Rubbish is strewn in the yard of the Stafford home. Photo / News Corp
Upset locals gathered outside the home yesterday, with one pinning a note on the front fence that read "We will miss you".
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the discovery of the situation was "tragic".
"Obviously, just based on what I've seen in the media reports, this is particularly tragic, heart-wrenching and no doubt will be investigated in detail, both the Child Safety response as well as what's happened here," Miles said.
The shocking incident comes in the same week that police found the body of Willow Dunn inside her home in Cannon Hill in Brisbane.
Queensland Police alleged the 4-year-old, who had Down syndrome, starved to death, with her decomposing body found in her bed.
