Shocking details of rat-infested squalor as inquest into death of Chloe Valentine, 4, begins

LITTLE Chloe Valentine lived and died in bug and rat-infested squalor, neglected by a lying mother who insisted she was a better parent when high on drugs, an inquest has heard. AUDIO

LITTLE Chloe Valentine lived and died in bug and rat-infested squalor, neglected by a lying mother who insisted she was a better parent when high on drugs, an inquest has heard.

In a disturbing morning of evidence, the Coroners Court has heard Families SA was notified of Chloe’s horrific circumstances 21 times in four years.

Despite those notifications — and workers requiring gloves and masks to clean homes from which Chloe’s mother had been evicted — the government agency never stepped in to remove her.

On the occasions when Families SA did investigate, its staff did so days, weeks and even months after reports were made because it “lacked the capacity” to act immediately.

State Coroner Mark Johns heard workers accepted the lies of Chloe’s mother, Ashlee Jean Polkinghorne, because whenever they staged a scheduled visit, the child was “clean and happy”.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Naomi Kereru, said the inquest would hear recordings of a phone conversation Polkinghorne had with a friend.

“Polkinghorne says she is a better mother when she would take amphetamines, because she would pick Chloe up and feed her and change her nappy,” she said.

“She said this was as opposed to when she was drunk, when she would instead prop Chloe’s bottle up to her mouth and leave it there.”

Chloe died on January 20, 2012, aged four.

Polkinghorne, 22, and her partner Benjamin Robert McPartland, 28, laughed as they video recorded her repeatedly falling off a motorbike in their backyard over a three-day period.

The 39 injuries Chloe sustained in those falls led to her death.

Polkinghorne was jailed for eight years, and McPartland for seven years, but both received non-parole periods of more than four years.

The sentences sparked public outrage and prompted prosecutors to appeal, saying nothing could mitigate the couple’s crimes and their punishments were “manifestly inadequate”.

In July, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed that challenge, saying the case was neither rare nor exceptional enough to warrant alteration to the sentences.

Mr Johns subsequently announced he would hold an inquest to examine the months leading up to Chloe’s death, and the role played by State Government services.

He warned he would accept neither delays nor claims of secrecy and expressed disappointment with a 26-day wait for SA Police to hand over key evidence.

This morning Chloe’s grandmother, Belinda, exclusively told The Advertiser she wanted the inquest to bring about significant change within Families SA, not be “a witch hunt”.

Opening the inquest today, Ms Kereru said the community expected Families SA to protect children who were at risk of, or were suffering, neglect.

She said that, in spite of the agency’s near-constant involvement with Chloe and Polkinghorne, the child was “raised in an environment of chronic neglect”.

Polkinghorne, she said, was 15 when she became pregnant with Chloe and that prompted the first notification to Families SA as friends were concerned she was incapable of caring for a child.

Ms Kereru said Chloe’s life was transient from the outset as she and her mother moved from one “filthy” house of drug-users to another.

Just three weeks after Chloe’s birth, a caller to Families SA reported Polkinghorne referring to her daughter as “a bitch” and leaving her unattended for hours at a time.

However, a visit by Families SA workers to Polkinghorne’s home dismissed those claims as “malicious” because the environment they saw “directly opposed” the reports.

Ms Kereru said that, in September 2007 a friend of Polkinghorne’s family named Tricia Foord contacted Families SA to say Chloe was being neglected.

“She told them ‘this is one matter that will slip through the cracks, Polkinghorne can be a very convincing liar’,” she said.

Later that month, Families SA staff heard the recording of Polkinghorne discussing drug use and called the mother in for a meeting, at which time she promised to change her ways.

Ms Kereru said Polkinghorne’s behaviour changed for a period but, by October of that year, was observed to be drug-affected.

Chloe, meanwhile, was being left “under the TV in her bassinette for long periods of time”.

For a time, Polkinghorne and Chloe’s case was managed by the Salvation Army which also provided them with a place to live.

Ms Kereru said that house was soon “squalid” with “ants crawling” over piles of dirty washing, nappies and rubbish.

The Families SA worker who visited the site did not cite Polkinghorne for child abuse but instead helped her clean the mess, even dumping the rubbish at a tip for her.

In August 2008, police found Chloe in the care of a 15-year-old stranger who was drinking in Civic Park, Tea Tree Plaza — Polkinghorne was located in a nearby liquor store.

A month later, Ms Foord again contacted Families SA, saying Polkinghorne had moved Chloe to a house in which illicit drugs were being abused.

Ms Kereru said Chloe was, at that time, “frequently unwell, vomiting and losing her hair”.

“Ms Foord said Polkinghorne did not have ‘the guidance or support to take Chloe to a doctor’,” she said.

The report was deemed a priority matter but was not investigated by Families SA at the order of the then-manager of its north-eastern office, Bruce Johnston.

Ms Kereru said that, in Chloe’s case notes, Mr Johnston wrote said the child’s condition had been reported as acceptable “as recently as July 2008”.

“He authorised (report) closure without investigation,” she said.

“He wrote ‘at this time, Families SA does not have the capacity to become involved’.”

Further reports of neglect were filed over the following months, with people noting Polkinghorne was “paralytic”.

When Chloe fell ill with, and became dehydrated by, a gastro bug, her godmother took her to hospital — Polkinghorne did not arrive until 3pm the following day.

By November 2008, Chloe was observed to be “pale and gaunt” with “filthy” clothes but Families SA did not investigate, blaming it on her bout with gastro.

Ms Kereru said Polkinghorne’s father twice reported his daughter for child abuse but Families SA did not act on his concerns for three months.

During that period, further reports damned Polkinghorne’s house as “infested with flies”.

Ms Kereru said Polkinghorne’s then-boyfriend punched her in the face, and threatened her with a knife, while she was holding Chloe.

“The report noted Chloe did not cry as she had gotten used to it through past experience,” she said.

“Polkinghorne later reported remembering waking up on the floor from a state of unconsciousness with Chloe standing over her and screaming.”

Families SA responded by organising respite care and a child care placement for Chloe, but Ms Kereru said that did little to address her home life.

“Polkinghorne was evicted from her then-premises in December 2009 ... she left it in a filthy state with rotting food and bags of rubbish everywhere,” she said.

“Cleaners were required to wear protective masks and gloves.”

Families SA gave Polkinghorne six months to demonstrate change but further reports of neglect followed, with several claiming she had taken up work as a prostitute.

Sometime in 2011, she and Chloe moved to a house in Royal Park in which, Ms Kereru said, there were rats and bugs.

“Chloe was sleeping in a room with no natural light and there was no hot water for a period of weeks,” she said.

She said Families SA received three further reports on June 8, 2011.

“It was reported Polkinghorne was working as a prostitute, that she was regularly smoking marijuana, that she was verbally abusive toward Chloe and regularly called her a c—t,” she said.

Families SA did not visit the house until August 25 of that year and found Chloe “very clean with tidy hair” and Polkinghorne “cooking for her”.

Ms Kereru said Chloe subsequently “fell off Families SA’s radar” as Polkinghorne began her relationship with McPartland.

She said witnesses would give evidence about the “disturbing” life Chloe lived in that house.

“Chloe was not allowed out of her room, and a video camera was set up in her room to ensure that she did not leave her room,” she said.

“McPartland once punished her by washing her mouth out with soap.”

Ms Kereru said Families SA received its 21st and final notification about Chloe on January 19, 2012, when she was hospitalised for her motorbike injuries.

She told Mr Johns the inquest, already scheduled for two weeks, would require further hearing dates at a subsequent time.

She said the witnesses to be called over the fortnight “only take us up to 2009”.

In her evidence today, Ms Foord said she came to know Polkinghorne through her own daughter, who was also pregnant and “had troubles” around that time.

She said the first home in which Polkinghorne lived with Chloe was known by Hope Valley teenagers as “the party house” and a source of drugs.

Ms Foord said the teens she had befriended through her daughter would provide updates on Chloe, which she in turn reported to Families SA.

“There was a heater in the lounge and a single mattress on which Chloe was sleeping... one night it caught fire,” she said.

“The fire was put out (but) it wasn’t reported because the teens said ‘we don’t dob’.”

Ms Foord said she had listened to the recorded phone conversation, which was between her daughter and Polkinghorne.

“She was clearly on drugs and she clearly stated she couldn’t look after Chloe without being on crack,” she said.

“I thought that would be enough evidence to remove Chloe from the situation.”

She said that, at the time, she had not wanted Chloe removed and felt Polkinghorne’s issues could be solved through Families SA intervention, support and counselling.

As time went on, however, she became convinced Chloe would “slip through the cracks” of the welfare system.

“I thought that Chloe was going to come to some harm... I thought just visiting the home whenever I called (to report neglect) wasn’t good enough,” she said.

“Nobody was doing anything about it, nobody was listening.”

Ms Foord said that, at the age of one, Chloe was “very, very thin” and “extremely light”, describing her condition as “very poor”.

“She was unable to eat off a spoon... she didn’t know how to get her tongue around a spoon, she had no idea how to eat,” she said.

“She was a very timid, reserved little thing and very nervous around strangers... I didn’t hear her say any words.”

Ms Foord said Chloe’s great-grandmother once visited Polkinghorne’s residence and was distressed by what she saw.

“There was blood down the walls when you walked in,” she said.

The inquest also heard evidence from Ms Foord’s daughter, Kate Wallis.

Ms Wallis had a son, Taylor, with Polkinghorne’s brother shortly before Chloe’s birth and quickly became concerned about her new niece’s welfare.

The inquest continues.