Child protection services contacted before four-year-old’s alleged murder as police investigate cannibalism claim

Kate Washington, the minister for families and communities, said a review had been launched after the alleged murder of a four-year-old boy in the Central Coast. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The New South Wales department in charge of child protection received “a number of reports” about a four-year-old child before he was allegedly murdered by his mother, the minister revealed, as she announced a review into how the case was handled.

Kate Washington, the NSW minister for communities and family, announced the independent review into the child’s case on Monday afternoon, two days after police found the preschooler’s body at a home on the Central Coast.