‘Cover-up’: Northern Coroner’s damning findings over baby James Daniel Tabuai’s 2013 death

Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson has found the lack of detail from family members about what happened in an Edmonton home in the two hours prior to a toddler’s death is “deliberate” and “has been cultivated to cover up the true nature of the events”.

NORTHERN Coroner Nerida Wilson believes the lack of detail around what happened in an Edmonton home on the night seven-month-old James Daniel Tabuai died of significant skull fractures has been “cultivated” over the years “to cover the true nature of events”.

In her findings in the coronial inquest into the child’s death on February 1, 2013, Ms Wilson spared none of the adult caregivers – baby James’ mother Synoa, her sister and brother-in-law Danielle Tabuai and Ehammed Anderson, and her mother Germaine Lenoy – who were present that evening.

Baby James. Picture: Facebook

Ms Wilson found that in the weeks leading up to his death, baby James suffered several injuries.

She said there was sufficient evidence before her to indicate that several weeks before he died he sustained a head injury that left him with a bleed on the brain.

It was a severe injury, but not fatal.

Several days before his death, Ms Wilson found that baby James was shaken hard enough that his spinal cord and brain stem were damaged.

“And almost immediately prior to his death James sustained one or more severe blows to the head which fractured his skull, caused his brain to swell, and was accompanied by an almost immediate lapse into unconsciousness,” Ms Wilson told the Cairns Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning.

“That injury caused his death.”

Ms Wilson placed the timing of the fatal injury within one to two hours prior to when the alarm was raised in the household by Mr Anderson that baby James was not breathing at 10.30pm.

It was at around 9.30 or 10pm that baby James’ then-11-year-old aunt Nyrah noticed he was breathing funny, “like a stuck hiccup”.

Synoa Tabuai with her son, James Daniel Tabuai. Picture: Facebook

On the evidence before her, Ms Wilson found James was slammed or thrown into the wall or floor by one of the persons present in the household and within an hour or less of 10.30pm.

Ms Wilson said it was possible baby James was left in a state of unconsciousness, without immediately being attended to, for a period of time before the alarm was raised.

He was transported to hospital via ambulance and pronounced dead at 11.59pm.

The court heard the hours between the family meal and clean-up that night, the movement of each person around the home, detail as to who was checking on children and who was sleeping and where was “extremely vague and ill-defined up to and including the moment Ehammed raised the alarm at or about 10.30pm that evening”.

“That lack of detail has in my view been cultivated to cover the true nature of events inside the home,” Ms Wilson said.

She went on to say that despite the tensions and fallings-out between family members over the intervening nine years between baby James’ death and the inquest, not one person present that night had indicated any knowledge or offered any explanation as to how he sustained the fatal injury.

Synoa Tabuai leaves after giving evidence at a coronial inquest into her son's death on Wednesday, June 8.

“It is in my view absolutely implausible, given the non-accidental force that was required to cleave James’ skull such that it caused a bilateral fracture and cause a massive haematoma and brain swelling, that no one knows or remembers a thing,” Ms Wilson said.

“All those present deny striking James, witnessing an assault upon him, or having the circumstances of the event later disclosed to them.

“That implausible silence infers that not only one person knows, that all the primary caregiving adults know what occurred either from their own knowledge of events that night or have come to learn since and not disclosed.”

Ms Wilson acknowledged the assistance of the Queensland Police Service and in particular the quality of Detective Sergeant Glenn Wallwork’s investigation.

Ehammed Anderson gave evidence at a coronial inquest into the 2013 death of James Daniel Tabuai. Picture: Bronwyn Farr

“In fact I am satisfied that the police investigation and particularly the efforts of Detective Sergeant Wallwork were of the highest standard and from that perspective all that could be done was done by the Queensland Police Service in this case,” Ms Wilson said.

No one has ever been charged over baby James’ death.

Ms Wilson found Synoa, who admitted to drinking alcohol on the night of the toddler’s death and who conceded at inquest she found her emotions hard to control at the time, was the person most likely to have inflicted the fatal injuries.

“Saying that, Ehammed was the last to see James in the room with the baby for some considerable period before alerting Synoa to his laboured breathing. He claims to know nothing about anything,” Ms Wilson said.

“Germaine was undoubtedly the family matriarch at the time of James’ death. Along with Synoa, Danielle and Ehammed I have formed a view that Germaine knows much more than she has revealed.”

In her findings under section 45 of the Coroners Act, Ms Wilson said: “The lack of detail as to the movements of family members in the two hours prior to 10.30pm is deliberate and has been cultivated to cover up the true nature of the events. I am satisfied that all members of the family present that night know what transpired.”

Originally published as ‘Cover-up’: Northern Coroner’s damning findings over baby James Daniel Tabuai’s 2013 death