Bradley Smith: Coronial inquest hears child safety details for first time

The child safety officer for orphaned teen, Bradley Smith, had only two meetings with the 14-year-old in the 10 months leading up to his death in a stolen car crash, an inquest has heard.

Bradley Smith, 14, was killed after a stolen car slammed into a tree on Pease St, Manoora on February 14, 2022. Picture: Facebook

The child safety officer for an orphaned teen had only two meetings with the 14-year-old in the 10 months leading up to his death in a stolen car crash in Far North Queensland, an inquest has heard.

Bradley Smith died in the early hours of February 14, 2022, when the stolen car he was in with five other children crashed at high speed into a tree on Pease Street, Manoora.

A coronial inquiry in Cairns last week was told he was under the care of the Department at the time, having lost both his mother then his father in traumatic circumstances in the five years before his own death.

Scene of a fatal traffic crash at Manoora, where an allegedly stolen Toyota Yaris left Pease Street near the Saltwater Creek bridge and crashed into a tree. Picture: Brendan Radke

Bradley’s child safety officer, who cannot be named, said she met with him personally just twice in the 10 months he was on her books.

She said she made no attempts to contact his family members in that time, or to contact the teenager himself by mobile phone despite a “policy” that said officers should connect monthly, the court was told.

Bradley’s care needs were “complex”, she said, explaining she case managed 20-25 children at that time.

She told the inquest the department funded a third-party provider to manage Bradley’s residential placement and day-to-day care and needs, and she was in contact with them rather than Bradley.

Bradley’s case manager said the boy had a number of ‘packages’ to support his health and social wellbeing, which included gym membership, horse riding lessons and psychological support, but this depended on the boy “taking up these opportunities”.

She told the inquest he had been ‘self-placing’ with friends in the months before his death, rather than in residential placements, where he said he had been assaulted.

Coroner Terry Ryan asked the officer if the department was “ultimately responsible” for him, to which she answered “yes”.

She was also asked if she believed Bradley, who was known to have a distrust of the department and multiple health and behavioural challenges at age 14, had the capacity to manage his time, life decisions about where to live, and the appointments made for him.

A coronial inquiry is being held in the Cairns courthouse before coroner Terry Ryan.

She answered “no”, but noted she “followed the process”, which included regular care meetings and a six-monthly case review, which she said she largely cut and pasted from the previous report.

The officer conceded during evidence that, in hindsight, she should have contacted Bradley’s family members, who had expressed interest in guardianship.

Two of Bradley’s family members told the inquiry they had made steps towards guardianship of Bradley before his death, but their follow-up phone calls were not returned.

Bradley’s aunt, a disability support work manager from Victoria, Kim Smith, detailed the steps she took to prepare to care for Bradley, saying she made arrangements to change her job from management to a more flexible support worker role, and relocate from the city to a rural area to reduce the risks and dangers for Bradley.

Ms Smith said she posted completed paperwork that she understood were “phase 1” checks required to progress her guardianship, but after Bradley’s case manager changed several times, she heard no more, she said.

Kim Smith, aunt of Bradley Smith, 14, who died in a stolen car crash in 2022, after giving evidence at a coronial inquest into his death.

“My phone calls and messages weren’t answered ... I didn’t know how to navigate children’s services. I was never given the address of his placement,” Ms Smith said.

“The system breaks my heart that it’s putting a number on how many times we try to help someone ... we cannot give up.”
Ms Smith became upset when she described the day Bradley had died.

Just hours after she was given the news of her nephew’s death, someone associated with Child Safety called her to do an interview for “family mapping” to support Bradley’s care.

“I told her he had died.”

Ms Smith said she had trusted the process, knowing she could not simply move Bradley interstate without the right support and legalities in place.

“I didn’t want to be another of the people of Bradley’s list who had failed him.”

She said Cairns was a place of trauma for Bradley and she believed he was better off with the fresh start, a sentiment echoed by Bradley who wanted to move and had phoned her many times to say the process was taking too long.

His uncle, a show worker who lived near Toowoomba, told the inquiry he had also filled in paperwork to assume temporary guardianship of Bradley, and had flown to Cairns at least six times to help Bradley when he was struggling with his mental health, and when he experienced issues or assaults in his residential care home.

“There were all these different people ... but nobody wants to take responsibility,” Ms Smith said.

Counsel representing The Department of Child Safety, Chris Fitzpatrick, asked the relatives why the department did not have records of the paperwork or the phone calls, to which they replied that they had made the calls and filled out and/ or posted documents.

Originally published as Bradley Smith: Coronial inquest hears child safety details for first time