By MAISY RAE and FARID FARID FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
The NSW Government has been forced to apologise for allowing two vulnerable foster children to be placed in the care of an elderly woman living with a serial killer.
Reginald Arthurell, who now goes by Regina after transitioning in 2020, is understood to have moved in with the children, aged 12 and 14, at a home in Western Sydney.
Arthurell, 78, spent 24 years behind bars for bludgeoning their fiancée, Venet Mulhall, to death in 1996. They were on parole at the time, after killing their stepfather with a carving knife in the 1970s and a teenage sailor in the 1980s.
News of where the triple-killer was living was first revealed on Monday by 2GB host Ben Fordham, with heavily-armed police swooping in a day later to move Arthurell on from the property.
On Wednesday, NSW Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington conceded the children were put in danger by being allocated to the home where Arthurell resided.
'It's entirely unacceptable for a vulnerable child in the care of the state to be living with a triple murderer,' she told 2GB.
'It should never have happened and I'm deeply apologetic.'
Washington said her department was first made aware of the unusual living situation in December but 'some very poor decisions' taken at the time didn't rectify their placement.
It's understood Arthurell began sharing the home after being invited to stay by an elderly woman they met at Westmead Hospital.
The woman's daughter alerted 2GB on Monday after growing increasingly concerned for the safety of her mother and the children.
During a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday, NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley was grilled by coalition MP Damien Tudehope who pressed him on what he knew and when.
An extended supervision order slapped on Arthurell which lapsed in December 2024 needed to be on Mr Daley's radar, Mr Tudehope said.
'You took no action to seek an extended supervision order and the circumstances of this person... now living with a woman who is significantly at risk and her foster children,' he said to Daley in a testy exchange.
'No one in the government took any any steps in relation to it. Do you think that's acceptable in protecting community safety?'
Arthurell was released on parole in November 2020 after serving a 24-year sentence.
There was a testy exchange between Attorney-General Michael Daley (right) and Coalition MP Damien Tudehope on Wednesday after Arhurell's extended supervision order lapsed.
It comes five years after Arthurell was forced to move out of a Yagoona retirement home after local community members learned of her real identity.
Arthurell was arrested in January 2022 on sex crime allegations after they were accused of sexually touching a 55-year-old man.
A spokesperson for NSW Attorney General, Michael Daley, told the Daily Mail on Monday that Arthurell remains without an extended supervision order.
'All decisions in relation to extended supervision orders are made after thorough consideration of risk assessments and all other relevant information, and with the primary object of the Act, which is the safety and protection of the community, in mind,' the spokesperson said.
'Any concerns regarding allegations of financial abuse, or other concerns relating to the safety of other individuals, should be reported to the NSW Police Force.'