Leeanne Chrysilla Eatts manslaughter trial: Day two

A woman living with Leeanne Eatts and her two little boys has told the court the mother was a happy-go-lucky person ‘constantly doing things’ for her kids.

Smoking Ceremony and Memorial held for Barak Austral 5 and Jhulio Sariago 3, the two boys who drowned in the Ross River. Leanne Eatts, their mother, is in the centre. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Leeanne Eatts was a genuine down to earth mother who was always there for her kids, claimed a woman who lived at the Eatts home at the time of the tragic double drowning of her sons.

Leeanne Chrysilla Eatts, 52, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of her two sons, Barak Brian Austral, 5 (known as Junior) and Jhulio Maximus Arturo Sariago, 3, who drowned in flooded conditions beside the Ross River in Townsville on February 25, 2019.

Gail Lyn Kofoed, who was the first of 10 prosecution witnesses on Wednesday, told the court that she had just become homeless and was crying at a McDonalds restaurant when she first met Eatts.

The Supreme Court heard that Eatts invited her to come and stay with her and her three children at their two-storey home in Brett Street, Cranbrook, about six weeks before the drowning.

Ms Kofoed said she shared meals with the family and became good friends with Eatts.

Barak Austral, 5, was one of the boys found submerged in the Ross River on Tuesday morning.

She said there was a small children’s pool under the house that Jhulio and Barak liked to play in.

“They also played a lot with hoses; they liked to play with water, like all kids,” she said.

She said on February 24, 2019, the boys had a fight and their bicycle had been thrown down a hill into mud in a gully beside the Ross River.

“They told me about it and Jhulio held my hand and came with me while I went down to the river to get the bike back, and the boys and the bike were covered in mud,” she said.

Ms Kofoed told the court when she returned to the house she told Eatts what had happened and she ‘wasn’t happy’.

“She scolded the kids and told them off and they finished up having dinner and going to bed, and it was very clear she was unhappy about them being near the river by themselves,” she said.

On the following day Ms Kofoed said she and Eatts were having a cigarette on the front veranda, which was their normal practice, when Eatts went to the back door and called out to the boys to be ready to come in for a shower and dinner in 20 minutes.

She said after 20 minutes had elapsed, Eatts asked another person living in the home to check on the boys.

“[They] came back in a minute or so and said the boys were not there,” she said.

“She then sent [them] down to the African boys’ (friends of the two boys, who lived in the next street) place to see if they were playing there, but [they] came back quickly and said they weren’t there and hadn’t been there.

“Then Leeanne and I headed out along the river in different directions to search for ourselves.”

She said by now Eatts was ‘pretty stressed’ and rang the police, and a massive police hunt got under way.

Gail Lyn Kofoed said she woke to Leeanne Eatts (above) “screaming”. Picture: Alix Sweeney

“I spent most of the night searching and finally went to bed and I was woken up by Leeanne screaming, early in the morning,” said Ms Kofoed.

Under questioning from Eatts’ barrister Tony Kimmins, Ms Kofoed said Leeanne was a bubbly, happy go lucky person, who would give the shirt off her back to anyone and was ‘constantly doing things with her kids’.

Retired academic Lee Arthur Fitzpatrick told the jury he lived in Brett St near the Eatts’ home and had four security cameras attached to the outside of his house.

The jury watched footage from one camera showing the boys going to the river with their bicycle, coming back without it, then Jhulio returning to the river with Ms Kofoed in tow, on February 24, 2019.

Mr Fitzpatrick said the gully where the bike had been thrown lay between his house and the Ross River and always filled with water after a flood event.

The court took a break for lunch, with four more witnesses due to be called after: Kerrie Jacqueline Jobson, Alison Elizabeth Walton, Lachlan James Harding and Laura Maria Chapman.

Originally published as Leeanne Chrysilla Eatts manslaughter trial: Day two