NSW: NSW Housing confirms it was working with newborn's family

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2007
NSW: NSW Housing confirms it was working with newborn's family

SYDNEY, Dec 5 AAP - Housing NSW says it has been helping to find accommodation for
the family of a newborn baby found dead in a roadside paddock.

A passer-by yesterday found the body of the infant boy in the paddock at the side of
the Pacific Highway in the Newcastle suburb of Belmont North.

Police are treating the death as suspicious and a post-mortem examination will take place today.

The Department of Community Services (DoCS) has denied reports the family was known
to the department and that the department had booked them into the Winston Court Motel,
where they checked in on Friday.

But Housing NSW, without confirming it had placed them in the motel, today issued a
statement saying it had found accommodation for the family.

A Housing NSW spokesman said the department would do all it could to assist police
in the investigation.

"Housing NSW can confirm that it has provided temporary emergency accommodation for
this family as recently as last weekend," he said.

"This family had a former tenancy with the department and Housing NSW was working with
them to secure accommodation in the private rental market."

The spokesman said the department would not be commenting further on the case.

The motel owner has told News Limited newspapers that DoCS had checked a couple and
their four children into the motel on Friday.

She said she did not see a baby with the couple, nor did the mother appear to be pregnant.

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KEYWORD: NEWBORN DAYLEAD

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