Why Child Safety didn’t act on warning 11 days before girls died in car

Child Safety Safety officers did not act on a warning that two little girls were in danger only 11 days before they died, a court has heard.

Kerri-Ann Conley pictured with daughter Darcey-Helen before her death at Waterford West. Picture: Supplied

Child Safety Safety officers failed to act on a warning that two little girls were in danger only 11 days before they died because they were sceptical of the tipster’s “reliability” and “motivation”, a court has heard.

Darcey-Helen Conley, 2, and one-year-old Chloe-Ann Conley died after being left in a sweltering car for more than nine hours by their drug addicted mother Kerri-Ann Conley in November 2019.

A pre-inquest conference on Monday heard that there had been repeated red flags about the safety of the girls, including reports Conley had been in three car crashes with her eldest child while high on drugs.

Kerri-Ann Conley and one of her two children. Pictured Facebook

Medical records also showed she had disappeared from the hospital for hours on end after giving birth to both girls and needed to be prompted by nurses to feed and change the children.

Multiple reports were made to authorities about concerns for the welfare of both girls, including one tip to Crimestoppers that Conley was dealing ice from her home, but police evaluated the complaint as “vexatious”.

Counsel assisting the coroner Simon Hamlyn-Harris said the hospital had made a mandatory report to Child Safety after the birth of Darcey-Helen in May 2017.

Conley was discharged from the hospital with the newborn on May 17 and agreed to return for pediatric and social worker appointments the following week but never came back.

Months later in August 2017, an anonymous tip was made to Child Safety reporting that Conley had “smashed up” three cars with Darcey in the back while driving high.

The person said she would stay awake for days taking drugs, and that she had used drugs even through her pregnancy.

Darcey-Helen Conley.

Chloe-Ann Conley.

The tip led to Child Safety deeming Darcey was in need of protection and in November 2017, she was removed from her mother’s care for a month but returned after Conley agreed to take part in an intervention parental agreement that she did not ultimately participate in.

She was then referred to another intervention program that she also did not engage with.

Chloe-Ann was born in October 2018 and the hospital again reported Conley leaving the ward for hours at a time.

Child Safety received further reports on November 3, 4 and 6 in 2019 that Conley was using drugs and regularly had other addicts at her home where the children lived.

“It was noted that the person who had made this report to child safety was concerned that the children were being exposed to drug use and that as a result, that the children were unsafe,” Mr Hamlyn-Harris said.

“So Child Safety recorded the concerns about the risk to the children following this however when it came to considering the report … it seems that child safety were sceptical about the reliability of the reports and were also sceptical about the motivation of their reporter and so on 12 November (2019) a decision was made that the threshold for the recording of a notification under the Child Protection Act had not been met.

“So one of the central issues in this inquest will be the appropriateness of that decision which was made only 11 days before the children died.”

An inquest is expected to be held in the Brisbane Coroners Court before State Coroner Terry Ryan from April 29.

Conley was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment in February after pleading guilty to manslaughter.