Mother who lost two babies went on ice binges for days, inquest told
THE MOTHER and grandmother of two babies who died within a year of each other were both addicted to the drug ice and raised three children in a squalid Western Sydney townhouse with no hot water and frequently no food, an inquest has heard.
NSW
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THE MOTHER and grandmother of two babies who died within a year of each other were both addicted to the drug ice and raised three children in a squalid Western Sydney townhouse with no hot water and frequently no food, an inquest has heard.
The father of one of the dead baby girls told the inquest the mother would go on ice-binges for days and then would, “sleep for a week, not doing anything but getting up to go to the toilet the kids running amok.”
“She will sleep until the next payday from Centrelink and then off to the dealer she goes,” he said.
The inquest is examining the deaths of the two half sisters known only as BLGN and DG who were three months and 19 days old when they died in 2014 and 2015.
BLGN was found by police dead in her cot which was crowded with blankets, toys, an adult-sized pillow and two bottles on April 10, 2014.
DG was removed from her mother’s care but died 19 days after her birth on June 30 2015 after being admitted to hospital with a heart abnormality.
The inquest is examining Family and Community Services role in the two girls’ short lives as the government department received many risks reports about the mother’s neglect of her children — including her two older boys — but failed to take action.
The inquest heard evidence that the mother and grandmother — who both can’t be identified — regularly used ice in front of the small children.
On Tuesday the father of BLGN, who was separated from his daughter’s mother but sometimes visited, gave evidence that he saw her use a use a folded blanket placed on the baby’s chest to prop up a milk bottle so the infant could feed herself.
He said he did not know why that method of feeding was used, “just laziness I guess now that I think about it.”
The maternal grandmother of the babies told the court that on the day of BLGN’s death she woke up at midday and soon afterwards asked her daughter if it was time for the baby to be feed.
She told the inquest her daughter went upstairs to check the baby and found the child dead in her cot. The grandmother said the infant’s skin was “clammy” and “cold”
She admitted that they smoked ice regularly but denied they did so in front of the children
Magistrate Harriet Grahame asked the grandmother, “You were smoking ice every couple of days your daughter was smoking ice as well there were three kids in the house … did you think everything was all right?”
“At the beginning I thought everything was fine but in the end with the death of (BLGN) I must have realised yeah,” the grandmother said.
The court heard that when police arrived on the day of BLGN’s death they found ice pipes in the house, no food in the kitchen and clothes and rubbish all over the floor.
The grandmother denied that the children weren’t well fed.
Counsel assisting the coroner Kate Richardson SC told the grandmother that FaCS had received numerous report of that the older boys would wander the streets asking neighbours for food.
The grandmother responded by saying that the children were never allowed outside without an adult.
The paternal grandmother told the court that at one stage she was looking after BLGN because the infant’s living conditions with her mother were “horrible”
However, the paternal grandmother — who said she too was also addicted to ice- said the mother obtained a court order to get the baby back.
The paternal grandmother cried in the witness box saying BLGN was “very much loved by all of us.”
“I just want to know how she died,” she said.
The inquest continues.