Dedication of officers Tony King, Grant Hughes, Darren Kemball and Jeremy Harman led to justice for twin babies left to starve

THE dedication of officers in a long and challenging investigation led to the conviction of parents who let their twin babies starve to death.

POLICE officer Tony King has a cute photo of his daughter that he just cannot bring himself to look at.

The picture reminds the detective sergeant of the two babies that slowly starved to death in a Brisbane home.

“There’s a photo of the twins when they were alive … wearing those towels with a built-in hood,” said the father-of-four.

“My youngest daughter at the time, we had a photo of her wearing the same sort of thing. I’ve never looked at that photo again.”

Sgt King, detective Senior-Constable Grant Hughes, detective Senior-Constable Darren Kemball and Constable Jeremy Harman were the arresting team who arrived at the home in 2008 where the twins lay dead.

Their dedication in a horrific investigation has seen them nominated for a Pride of Australia award.

It was about 7pm on June 16, 2008, when Sgt King and his fellow officers were called to the home. They could smell the decomposition from the road.

The arrest team did not sleep that night.

Sen-Constable Hughes said it was one of the most confronting scenes he had ever attended.

“It was a horrific crime scene, it really was.

It was something you don’t forget quickly,” he said.

They worked through the night and the next day, painfully aware they only had a “small window of time” to draw out “the truth”.

Over the months and years that followed, the officers poured in extra hours – obtaining medical opinions, canvassing pubs and clubs; working to piece together how two babies could starve to death in suburban Brisbane.

“We had two helpless humans who could not fend for themselves … totally reliant on their parents … and that is what boggles the mind,” Sen-Constable Hughes said.

Sgt King said he had “a lot” of sleepless nights, wondering how it could possibly happen.

“In my case it makes you appreciate what you’ve got and how normal my childhood was, and you realise it can go so bad, so quickly for other people,” Sen-Constable Hughes said.

The twins’ parents were last year found guilty of manslaughter and both sentenced to eight years in jail.

Read about more local legends who’ve been nominated for Pride of Australia medals