Inquest into death of nine-month-old baby found washed up on Surfers Paradise beach

She was a chubby-cheeked nine-month-old who always seemed so happy. But unforgivable mistakes were made that saw her fall through the cracks and into the hands of her psychotic dad.

Authorities including Queensland’s Child Safety department have been criticised by a NSW coroner over the tragic death of a baby girl who was found washed up on a Gold Coast beach after being thrown into the Tweed River by her homeless and psychotic dad “because she was evil”.

NSW deputy coroner Harriet Grahame expressed profound sadness at the death of the “chubby-cheeked and smiling” nine-month-old in handing down her findings into the tragedy and making recommendations to improve authorities’ response to vulnerable children.

Ms Grahame said the First Nations baby was a “beautiful child whose life was cut short” and “how she fell through the cracks is a matter of considerable concern”.

The body of the baby was found washed up on Main Beach in November 2018 after being killed by her dad at the Jack Evans Boat Harbour at Tweed Heads.

Memorial scene of where a baby washed up at Surfers Paradise Beach. Picture: Adam Head

Ms Graham found he was suffering from “severe psychosis” at the time, after evidence to the inquest that he had reportedly had “hallucinations of being commanded to kill someone and to kill a baby” and “delusions concerning black magic, spirits and elders and, curiously, the singer Brittney Spears”.

The 47-year-old Torres Strait Islander man was found not guilty of his daughter’s murder in 2020 on mental illness grounds after a judge-only trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

A four-day inquest last December into the baby’s death heard evidence that the baby and her family were known to child protection authorities, police in NSW and Queensland and mental health services in various states and had contact with “multiple agencies” on both sides of the border in the lead-up to the tragedy.

At the time of her death, the baby, her older sister and their parents – who both suffered from “severe mental illness” – were living rough and sleeping in a park.

NSW Police Public Order and Riot Squad members search the banks of the Tweed River for evidence in 2018. (AAP Image/Tim Marsden)

Ms Grahame found that while the tragedy was impossible to predict, the risk of some kind of harm to the child was “entirely predictable”.

“While I accept that no single person had all the relevant information indicating the extent of the escalating risk involved, various people who had interacted with the family throughout 2018 should have understood that was a child in urgent need of protection,” she said in her findings.

Ms Grahame found there had been a failure by the Queensland Child Safety Department to critically analyse information about the family’s homelessness “which combined to put the children at risk of neglect and abuse”.

The coroner also found there had also been a failure by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice to conduct a safety assessment review and follow-up case work on the family.

She also found failings on the part of police from both states, including two “missed opportunities” by Queensland officers to alert Child Safety about the family’s homelessness and the children’s exposure to their father’s “aggressive, intimidating and intoxicated behaviour”.

The father of the child who was found dead at Surfers Paradise beach.

Ms Grahame said it was clear that no single agency had all the important information about the family “as it was spread across different agencies and was sometimes buried among records held”.

She found that while most of the “significant missed opportunities” were internal and not caused by the need to access interstate information, the sharing of data across borders could be improved.

Ms Grahame said that while there had been significant changes to child protection and police practices since the baby’s death, more could be done to prevent a similar tragedy.

Her recommendations included improved access to psychological experts for Queensland Child Safety caseworkers “to help them better assess risk to children” when working with families with complex mental health issues.

She also recommended an information sharing trial that would allow state and territory child protection authorities to have direct access to limited information on the national crime database.

The beach where the body of an infant was found at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. (AAP Image/Regi Varghese)

“I offer my sincere condolences to family,” the coroner concluded in her report.

“(The baby) was a beautiful child whose life was cut short. It is out of respect for her life that these proceedings were conducted. It is clear that members of the community who reported her circumstances to police and who offered her family material support could see she needed help.

“How she fell through the cracks is a matter of considerable concern to me.”

Northern NSW homelessness advocate John Lee, of non-for-profit organisation You Have A Friend which works extensively with the homeless in the Tweed area, said he was “horrified” by the tragedy.

Candlelight vigil for the baby found dead on Surfers Paradise Beach. Picture Glenn Hampson

He said small-scale homelessness organisations could not “check in with every single person”, and more investment and support was needed from both a state government and local council level.

“The state government and the housing department are doing their best but the reality is – a lot more needs to be done so we can give families the support they need to avoid further tragedy,” Mr Lee said

“The wait for housing is ten years in some parts of Northern NSW. I heard one gentleman tell me he wanted to opt out so a single mother with kids could go on the list instead. He said ‘I’ll be dead by then anyway’.”

Mr Lee said people with severe mental health issues and sleeping rough often “fall through the cracks” and it was “nearly impossible for small organisations like us to keep an eye on everyone”.

“Look at the Bondi stabbings. It’s a prime example,” he said.