Cases of child neglect in South Australia have emerged following a probe into the alleged manslaughter of three children.
Two women will face court charged with the criminal neglect of three children aged three, five and 14, South Australia (SA) Police said in a statement on Monday.
The children were removed from their home in December 2022 after an investigation deemed the home to be uninhabitable.
According to SA Police, the children were living in a state of "extreme squalor" with no food at the home. The children were in an unkempt and dirty condition.
As a result, detectives arrested a 32-year-old woman and a 59-year-old woman from the home and charged them with three counts of criminal neglect and failing to provide appropriate food and accommodation.
Both women have been bailed to appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates' Court on June 6.
The charges follow a string of arrests last week into alleged child neglect resulting in the deaths of three South Australian children.
"It's extremely rare in South Australia to charge an adult with the death of a child," South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner John Venditto told reporters.
"To charge three in one day is unprecedented."
On Wednesday, South Australian police charged three adults with the manslaughter of three children in separate, unconnected cases.
One of the children was six-year-old Charlie Nowland.
Charlie was found unresponsive in her family's home in Munno Para, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, in July last year. She later died in hospital.
A 47-year-old woman was charged with her death, alongside four other charges of criminal neglect relating to children aged between 8-14 living in the same home.
According to reports, four agencies - child protection, housing, human services and education - all had interactions with the family before Charlie's death.
The second child was seven-year-old Makai Wanganeen who was taken to hospital in February 2022 from his home in Craigmore. Makai died later that day, with a postmortem examination revealing he suffered from several serious health issues.
A man, 50, has been arrested and charged over his death.
"There is [alleged] neglect and abuse which we believe has occurred over a period of time but it doesn't have all the same characteristics of Charlie's," SA Police Detective Superintendent Des Bray told 7News.
The death of 15-year-old Jasmine Wilmott, who died in October 2018, was also part of the inquiry.
