How everyone failed to protect toddler: The slow painful death of Mason Lee

Battered and abused, Brisbane toddler Mason Lee’s injuries were described as the worst one doctor had ever seen. That was before his death.

WARNING: Disturbing content.

In the months before his slow, painful death, toddler Mason Jet Lee had no-one to protect him, neither his own mother nor the child safety officers who knew he was being abused.

The 22-month-old boy was living with Anne-Maree Lee and her de facto partner Andrew William O’Sullivan at Caboolture, 50km north of Brisbane in 2016.

A paediatrician, who had seen the brown-eyed little boy in the months before O’Sullivan would finally kill him, had told child welfare workers he was a “high level” suspect abuse victim.

A report released on Friday by Queensland’s public service watchdog now says officers, who only saw Mason once for five minutes in his short and tragic life, should have been sacked.

Mason had presented to the doctor in early 2016 with horrific anal injuries which resembled burns, with skin completely absent in patches.

Mason’s mother Anne-Maree Lee had explained away the injuries as “nappy rash”.

“I’d never seen anything quite so severe in my career,” the doctor would later tell a coronial inquest into Mason’s death.

He said the toddler had a fractured leg which had not been treated, and suffered from severe cellulitis, with the leg swollen to twice its size.

This caused, the doctor said, “a great deal of distress and pain” to the boy, who also had “suspicious” anal tears caused by severe constipation, or “the insertion of an object”.

Mason was his mother’s youngest child and being experienced, doctors expected she “would have been doing the majority of the care”.

Mason Lee, 22 months, suffered a broken leg and anal injuries before his mother’s partner finally killed him.

Anne-Maree Lee’s other children would run to their rooms to flee her violent boyfriend William O’Sullivan who killed Mason.

Violent, possessive drug user Andrew William O'Sullivan could be freed from jail as early as July next year for killing Mason.

Police at the Caboolture residence where toddler Mason Lee died after being violently assaulted by his mother Anne-Maree’s Lee’s de facto boyfriend. Picture: Claudia Baxter.

But it would be a single brutal blow that would eventually end Mason’s life.

In June 2016, William O’Sullivan struck the boy so hard in the abdomen it ruptured Mason’s small intestine, leading to an infection and death.

The little boy died in O’Sullivan’s unit after suffering what court prosecutors would say were “survivable” injuries.

The toddler had displayed “obvious” symptoms of pain, fever, vomiting and lethargy, but by the time paramedics were called, Mason was dead and his body was in rigor mortis.

A judge told Anne-Maree Lee at her sentencing last year that she had known O’Sullivan was “a drug user … that he had been violent to you.

“You knew that your children would run in their bedrooms when he visited your house … that he was prone to extreme outbursts of anger and was jealous, possessive and controlling.”

On Friday, Queensland’s Public Service Commissioner (PCS) released a report slamming the collective failure of child safety officers which had “dire consequences”.

The public service watchdog’s ethical standards unit determined 21 employees did not carry out their duties, had been “manifestly inadequate” and should have been fired.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2020 had asked the Public Service Commissioner to review the report on Mason Lee of Queensland deputy state coroner Jane Bentley.

The coroner’s report had deemed the state’s child safety department’s handling of Mason’s case “a failure in nearly every possible way”.

Mason Lee had a short and miserable life at the hand’s of his mother’s drug addict partner in Caboolture, Queensland.

Anne-Maree Lee, above with son Mason, failed to protect her child from the violent drug addict she was dating.

Supporters of Mason Lee rally outside Caboolture Magistrates Court in 2016 after the toddler’s mother and stepfather appeared on charges. Picture: Melissa Grant.

“The disciplinary action that was taken against frontline officers is manifestly inadequate given the objective seriousness and extent of the officers’ failings.” PCS chief executive Robert Setter said on Friday.

“In the most significant cases, some employees should have had their employment terminated.

“We would have expected that some other officers would have received a reduction in pay, and others demoted.

“It is not possible to understand the rationale of the departmental decision makers that supported such lenient disciplinary action being imposed.”

Five frontline officers have received a verbal reprimand, three others have already resigned and one manager still faces probable disciplinary proceedings.

Despite finding punishments were inadequate, no further action can legally be taken against staff who have already been disciplined.

Mr Setter recommended a new investigation be launched into more senior officers for their role in the management of resourcing and workloads.

Queensland Child Safety Minister Di Farmer after the coroner’s report was tabled in Brisbane last year. Picture: Dan Peled.

Queensland’s Minister for Children Leanne Linard said the department had not met Mason’s needs, and for that the government was deeply sorry.

“Across Queensland, our communities and our frontline child safety officers have been profoundly affected by his death,” she said in a statement.

Anne-Maree Lee, 29, and William O’Sullivan are both serving jail sentences for his manslaughter.

Lee also tearfully pleaded guilty to child cruelty for not getting treatment for Mason’s leg and anal injuries in the five months before his death.

Anne-Maree Lee is serving a minimum three years of a nine year sentence and O’Sullivan nine years in prison with the possibility of parole in July next year.