The squalid conditions inside a family home where an 11-week-old baby boy tragically died have been revealed for the first time, as an inquest into the Department of Child Protection interactions with an ‘immature’ teen mother prior to the newborn’s death gets underway.
Confronting police photos and footage of the cockroach-infested home in regional South Australia taken just hours after the tiny infant was found unresponsive in November 2018, show the entire house in a horrific state which investigators said smelled of faeces, urine and rotting food.
The floor in almost every room can be seen covered in rubbish, soiled nappies, animal faeces, dirty dishes and rotting food leftovers.
‘There is quite a bad smell of animal faeces through the house,’ a detective explains during a walk-through while coughing at the stench.
One of the officers recalled the living conditions as the worst he had seen in 20 years when he gave evidence at the SA Coroners Court on Tuesday.
The squalid conditions that confronted police officers of a home where a 11-week-old baby tragically died have been shown for the first time
The kitchen is filled with filthy pans on the stove, pizza leftovers, opened tins of milk formula and baby bottles containing putrid liquid which appear to be curdled milk surrounded by flies.
The fridge was bare, apart from several pizza boxes and a can of dog food while the pantry also contained little food.
A SA Coroner’s inquest which began on Tuesday will focus on the DCP response in the lead up to the boy’s death, which received 23 notifications about the living conditions of the baby and his older siblings between 2015 and 2018.
Many of the notifications predated the birth of the baby.
‘It is abundantly clear (the baby) died living in squalor in a home which placed him at risk of physical and psychological harm and the department had been alerted on numerous occasions of the living situation of these children,’ counsel assisting the coroner Sally Giles told the inquest.
‘This is not an exercise to criticise a teenage mother … but [she] was known to agencies who could have assisted and an agency that could have intervened.’
The laundry floor was covered in clothes, bedding, rubbish and toilet paper
In the kitchen, opened tins of milk formula and baby bottles containing putrid liquid which appear to be curdled milk were surrounded by flies
SA Detective Brevet Sergeant Kym Mayger described the living conditions of the home (pictured) as the worst he had seen in 20 years
The newborn was co-sleeping on a fold-out couch with his mother and siblings at the time of his death.
A post-mortem examination found the baby died of a respiratory tract infection.
Ten days before the baby died, the DCP received an urgent plea for assistance from a rural not-for-profit agency regarding the infant’s living conditions.
The inquest heard the family’s case manager raised concerns after being frequently refused access to the home by then 18-year-old mother to conduct welfare checks on the children.
However a rural Child Protection Department outpost did not have the ‘capacity’ to intervene and closed the case three days later.
‘The supervisor at (the department’s rural office) decided that the office had no capacity to deal with the notification and on the 23 November she moved to close the notification,’ Ms Giles said.
‘DCP did not take any action in relation to the referral within that 10-day period and on the 10th day of that notification, [the boy] died.’
Some of the bedding in the bedrooms was covered in soiled faeces and vomit, an inquest heard on Tuesday
SA Police investigating officer Detective Brevet Sergeant Kym Mayger who attended the home hours after the baby’s death was the first witness to give evidence on Tuesday.
He told the inquest he believed the children had been living in ‘disgusting squalor’ for months and how he questioned the mother about a visible mark on the baby stretching from his chin to his shoulder.
She told him was caused by one of the baby’s siblings offering him a toy and accidentally hitting him on the chin.
‘I wasn’t satisfied with her explanation. She described the injury as being in a different location,’ he said.
‘When I pointed out the injury across the throat and shoulder, she had no explanation.’
The court heard he suspected the injuries were a result of the baby being squashed in between a bedframe.
An inquest has heard the Department of Child Protection received 23 notifications about the the living conditions (pictured) of the newborn and his older siblings between 2015 and 2018
The kitchen was filthy (left) with little food for the children in the fridge (right) or the pantry
The kitchen cupboards (pictured) were filled with everything but food
The detective added police had no prior knowledge of the family until after the baby’s death, despite its ability to assist the DCP with welfare checks.
‘There’s been no police attendance at all at that address,’ he told the court.
The baby’s mother was charged with three counts of failing to provide for her children.
She was spared jail and placed a good behaviour bond.
The inquest heard she has since made significant improvements in caring her two other children.
The inquest continues.
The entire house was in a horrific state where every room smelled of faeces, urine and rotting food (pictured is the toilet and laundry)
The inquest heard a rural not-for-profit agency expressed concerns after being raised being frequently refused access to the home by the baby’s then 18-year-old mother (pictured is one of the bedrooms)
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