- Father drowned his nine-month-old daughter
- He tried to give her away to passersby
The results of a coroner’s inquest into the death of a nine-month-old girl whose father drowned her in a river after hearing voices in her head will be published on Thursday.
NSW Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame held a five-day inquest in December last year.
The inquest reported the baby was dumped overboard at Jack Evans Boat Harbor at Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales-Queensland border, on the night of November 17, 2018.
His body washed ashore two days later, on the sands of Surfers Paradise, more than 30 kilometers to the north.
The circumstances surrounding the death of the boy, known as Baby Q, were examined during a five-day inquest at the New South Wales State Coroner’s Court in December last year.
In the hours before the nine-month-old girl’s death, her father twice tried to rat her out to passersby in the park.
Before 7pm, the court was told he held the baby in his arms as he walked towards Jack Evans Harbor and threw her into the River Tweed.
One of the main questions of the investigation was whether the nine-month-old girl drowned or whether her father suffocated her before throwing her into the river.
The court was told the baby’s father was an Indigenous man who suffered from schizophrenia and alcohol dependence disorder and had previously reported suffering from auditory hallucinations.
Counsel assisting the inquest, Donna Ward SC, said the man had heard voices telling him to kidnap and drown a baby and hallucinations telling him it was Jesus.
His family had been sleeping outdoors in the days before his death (pictured, mattresses and garbage).
She was not taking her antipsychotic medication at the time of her daughter’s death.
The baby’s mother has also experienced “religiously inclined” hallucinations in the past and has suffered from mental illnesses characterized by mood disturbances, manic episodes and delusions.
The young family had been homeless and sleeping rough in the days before the nine-month-old boy’s death, the inquest was told.
On the morning of her death, police discovered the baby and her brother wearing only diapers and sleeping between their parents in a Tweed Heads park.
A key aim of the forensic investigation was to discover why the police safety net, child safety agencies and homeless agencies had failed in their duty of care to the baby and her brother.
“They weren’t looked after like they should have been,” Ms Ward said.
‘The safety net that should have caught (the baby) failed (her).’
Locals paid tribute to the murdered baby following the death of the nine-month-old girl.
In the months before the tragedy, the inquest was told the homeless family had interacted with government and non-government agencies in New South Wales and Queensland.
When the inquest began in December last year, Deputy State Coroner Grahame stressed it was an opportunity to understand what went wrong and how responses could be improved.
“This is an absolutely heartbreaking death of an absolutely beautiful First Nations girl,” he said.
“We are conducting this investigation out of respect for the life of that baby.”