Mason Lee death inquest: Sickening details of toddler’s painful death come to light

Slain Queensland toddler Mason Jet Lee would have had a “good prospect” of surviving if his mother or stepfather has bothered to seek medical help for him, a coroner has heard. Instead, the little boy suffered a slow and painful death at the hands of his primary carers.

SLAIN Queensland toddler Mason Jet Lee would have had a “good prospect” of surviving if his mother or stepfather has bothered to seek medical help for him, a coroner has heard.

A Caboolture paediatrician has this morning giving evidence during the first day of the long-awaited coronial inquest into the tragic 2016 death of the 21-month-old boy.

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In June of 2016, Mason’s stepfather William O’Sullivan struck the neglected boy so hard that his organs ruptured and left him to die a slow and painful death over days, refusing to seek help.

The doctor, who cannot be identified, was the first to give evidence, and told the court that if Mason’s mother or stepfather had taken him to hospital in the days before his death, he may have survived.

Mason Lee's mother, Anne Maree Lee.

“I think there would be a reasonable prospect surgery would have been successful,” he said.

“...in a small child whose got a healthy set of organs there’s a good prospect of survival yes.”

The paediatrician who saw Mason in the months before his death said he told child safety workers of his “high level concerns” for the boy’s welfare.

He said Mason had presented with horrific anal injuries that resembled burns with the skin completely gone in five places which his mother claimed was “nappy rash”.

William O’Sullivan struck the neglected boy so hard that his organs ruptured and left him to die a slow and painful death over days.

“I’ve never seen anything quite so severe in my whole career,” the doctor told the court.

He said the injuries would have been clear to anyone changing Mason’s nappy.

“It (the injuries) would have taken something like a month or maybe longer (to get that bad),” he said.

Mason Lee was found dead at a home north of Brisbane in 2016. (AAP Image/GoFundMe)

He said the toddler was also suffering severe cellulitis and his leg was swollen to twice its size, causing him “a great deal of distress and pain” and showed signs of having a fractured leg which had not been diagnosed or treated.

“He was a very very ill little boy at the time,” the doctor said.

The inquest continues.

Originally published as Mason Lee death inquest: Sickening details of toddler’s painful death come to light