The heartbroken father of a little girl who was left to die in a sweltering hot car with her half-sister remains haunted by the tragedy, describing every day as a “living nightmare.”
Darcey-Helen Conley was only two and a half when she and 18-month-old Chloe-Ann were left in a car outside their home in Brisbane for nine hours as the temperature inside the vehicle rose above 60°C.
Their ice cream-addicted mother Kerri-Ann Conley had left the two girls in her car after returning to her Waterford West home in the early hours of November 23, 2019.
She left the kids in their car seats because she didn’t want to wake them up and went inside to sleep.
Darcey-Helen’s father, Peter Jackson, will never forget the horrible memories when he tried to resuscitate his little girl on the bathroom floor nine hours later.
Darcey-Helen Conley and her half-sister Chloe-Ann were left to die in a hot car in 2019
He says everything changed that day.
“I relive that bathroom every night, every day,” Mr. Jackson told the ABC.
“It’s not just me that has affected this. It’s the whole family. We actually had to learn to live again.’
A shocking report released last month revealed that Conley was known to the Department of Child Safety and had a long history of neglect and substance abuse.
The report revealed how Conley brutally told child protective services that she was using methamphetamine and even refused drug tests.
Just ten days after Conley was declared a suitable parent, her daughters were found dead.
Mr Jackson is taking legal action against the Queensland Child Safety Department seeking damages for personal injury he believes resulted from their deaths.
Mr Jackson has suffered nervous shock, severe post-traumatic stress disorder and severe anxiety since the girls’ deaths three and a half years ago, according to a claim filed in the Supreme Court last year.
He believes that Darcey and Chloe would be alive today, were it not for the Queensland Child Safety Department’s string of busts.
Just weeks before the little girls died, doctors told the ward that Darcey had been exposed to meth at her mother’s home.
Mr Jackson also says he reported that the girl’s mother told him she had fallen asleep on the sofa and left her in the car.
A Queensland Family and Child Commission report found that ‘obvious red flags’ were being overlooked, that the system ‘should have done more’ to promote their safety and that there was a lack of information sharing between agencies .
“Child Safety knew their mom used ice cream,” Mr. Jackson said.
“They knew she was driving high, with Darcey in the car… that she refused to take drug tests.
“They knew she wanted to trade Chloe for an iPhone 7 (before she was born).”
Peter Jackson, father of Darcey-Helen Conley, remains haunted by the tragedy
Kerri-Ann Conley (pictured with Darcey-Helen) was sentenced to nine years in prison
He is also campaigning for child safety legislation to be reviewed and calling for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the protection system.
Mr Jackson was in court when Conley was sentenced to nine years in prison in February after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
He revealed outside court that he was not “obviously not happy with the punishment.”
“I can’t help what the other parent does. Unfortunately you can’t always be around,’ he said.
“I miss their laughter, their giggles, everything. They’re toddlers, what’s not to like about them?’
Kerri-Ann Conley (pictured) will be eligible for parole in November 2024
Kerri-Ann Conley’s daughters Darcy-Helen Conley (left) and Chloe-Ann (right) were found dead in Conley’s car, parked outside her Waterford West home in November 2019
Sentencing judge, Judge Peter Applegarth, labeled Conley’s actions “grossly negligent.”
“Your grossly negligent behavior was the decision to leave your vulnerable children unkempt, unheard and unnoticed in the dark,” he said.
Conley had taken them to a friend’s house at 11:30 PM on November 22, 2019 before returning home around 4 AM.
Instead of getting her daughters off their seats, she went inside, dawdled on her phone for a few hours, and fell asleep.
Darcy-Helen and Chloe-Ann remained in the vehicle for hours in direct sunlight as the temperature rose to 61.5 degrees.
The girls’ skin was hot to the touch, covered in burns and blisters and was “peeling off” when paramedics tried to resuscitate them, the court was told.
The court was told that Conley revealed she smoked drug ice cream daily to an undercover police officer while in custody.
But she insisted that her children “always came first” and that her drug use had no impact on her relationship with the girls.
“It’s an astonishing statement that only a drug addict can make,” said Mr Applegarth.
Conley, now 30, has already spent three years behind bars and will be eligible for parole after November 22, 2024.
Peter Jackson (pictured) believes Darcey and Chloe would be alive today if the state’s child protection system hadn’t gone through a series of failures
