A coronial inquest examining the death of a 20-month-old Wodonga girl has heard from a number of witnesses this week, including emotional testimony from her mother, who says she was deprived of the opportunity to make decisions that would benefit her daughter's life.
Warning: This article contains details readers might find distressing.
In October 2018, Baby L had been eating dinner when she collapsed and stopped breathing.
She was resuscitated and taken to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, but suffered hypoxic brain injuries and died the next day.
Baby L's mother appeared before the inquest on Thursday and delivered an emotional testimony about a daughter who was a “bright, lovely and bubbly child".
"I remember I made a big cardboard box that she would play in as a cubby," she said.
"She also loved to go on the swing at the park. She loved to stop in the pool with her sister and her brother and her aunty. Aunty loved her so much."
Tearing up and her voice trembling, the mother told the inquest that the choice she made in giving over her daughter to Baby L's father was the hardest decision she had made.
"But I’m glad that today is happening."
The father and his partner are expected to appear before the inquest next week.
Bruising concerns raised
The inquest heard last week from a number of people who worked at the day care centre Baby L attended before her death.
It heard workers had been documenting "unusual bruising" over her body for months, including by taking photos.
On Tuesday, its assistant director told the inquest that Baby L "always had bruises on her".
"Some were old. Some were fresh on top. Some were darker than others, a bit of discolouration," they said.
The inquest heard that Baby L first started coming to the day care in July 2018 and workers started to formally document bruising on her from July 30.
It also heard that the day care made two mandatory reports to the government about the matters in September that year.
The inquest was told the centre waited until September to provide those reports because of a need to be certain about the matters and a previous positive relationship with the father's partner — who the day care mostly dealt with.
Home visit conducted
The inquest also heard this week from individuals from Child Protection, and a senior detective from Wodonga's Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT).
The inquest was told that the senior detective and two Child Protection practitioners attended a Wodonga residence where Baby L was staying on September 12, 2018.
Child Protection practitioner 11 — who was not one of the two workers who visited the house — told the inquest they went to the home due to the nature of concerns presented to them in an intake document, which included photos of bruises and marks on Baby L that were taken by the day care.
On Friday, counsel assisting the coroner, Gordon Chisholm, asked Child Protection practitioner 22 —who was one of the practitioners that conducted the home visit — what they had discussed with the detective while at the scene.
They told the inquest that Baby L's father was able to identify, as an example, that a mark on Baby L's cheek was caused by one of his partner's children throwing a toy and that a bruise on her thigh was caused by her falling on a step.
But they told the inquest there was one mark they were concerned about — a smack mark on her thigh.
The senior detective with SOCIT told the inquest on Wednesday that before Baby L's death, they had obtained approval for a criminal charge in relation to the matter and issued a court summons.
"I had a proposed mention date in November," they said.
"I issued process. I had signed the summons, lodged the original copy at court ... but I hadn't actually served that summons, so it was never formally listed in the court system."
The inquest also heard that Child Protection and SOCIT visited the day care on September 18, 2018 to speak to workers about marks on Baby L's feet not observed six days earlier during the home visit.
Conflicting accounts of Baby L's health
Child Protection practitioner 22 told the inquest that the father had raised concerns about Baby L's health at the time of their home visit, including that she bruised easily.
They said he had sought a paediatric referral for Baby L, that he had made a maternal and child nurse health appointment and that he was willing to follow up with the medical professionals about his concerns.
They said for those reasons — and the father's explanations for most of the marks being plausible — both Child Protection and the police didn't feel a forensic medical assessment of Baby L was required at that time.
But the inquest also heard that the day care workers had not observed Baby L bruising easily.
Mr Chisholm asked the day care's assistant director whether Baby L bruised more easily than other children going there.
"I didn't find she was very active in childcare. She was very quiet.
"I don't recall her ever climbing or anything like that that would cause her to fall or hurt herself in any significant way."
The inquest also heard that the father's partner had told the day care workers that Baby L had been taken to the doctor for a blood test in August 2018 amid concerns over why she bruises so easily, was clumsy and tripped over a lot at home.
The assistant director said workers had not observed most of the partner's concerns, including evidence that Baby L had a blood test.
The inquest before Coroner Leveasque Peterson continues next week.
