Victorian toddler starves to death in insect-infested squalor

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A two-year-old boy starved to death in a squalor-filled home surrounded by mouldy food, dirty nappies, insects, drugs, broken furniture and a dead rat during Victoria’s COVID lockdowns.

His shocking neglect has prompted Victorian Coroner John Cain to recommend councils review maternal and child health nurse (MCHN) policies and keep better records of vulnerable families needing follow-up checks.

The toddler, whose identity has been withheld, died on July 3, 2021, after his 26-year-old mother fell out of contact with support services in the two years leading up to the tragedy.

A finding published this week reveals that when the boy’s mother called paramedics and police they found floors and walls covered with dried food and a dead rodent on the kitchen floor.

The floor of the toddler’s bedroom was littered with old fries and nuggets and the room was largely inaccessible due to furniture and other items strewn across the room. In the garage, police found a ziplock bag containing amphetamines, a glass ice pipe and bongs.

A paramedic found the dead toddler’s older brother wearing a nappy that had not been changed in a long time and described conditions in the home as “the worst [he] had ever seen by far”.

An inquest heard paramedics noticed the toddler’s eyes and stomach appeared sunken, he had an odour, and rashes consistent with lying in dirty nappies for extended periods.

An autopsy ruled the cause of death to be complications from malnutrition, while there was also evidence of dehydration that had left his kidneys failing. His hair contained traces of methylamphetamine and prescription drugs.

While the child was recorded as weighing 10.4kg at 21 months of age, he had dropped to 8.6kgs by the time his death, which the Victorian Forensic Paediatric Medical Service’s Dr Jennifer Sutherland Smith found was likely due to “weeks to a few months” of malnutrition.

“It is difficult to understand how, if [the toddler] was frequently sighted by the person caring for him during the hours to days prior to his death, that signs of dehydration and illness might have been missed,” Smith told the coroner.

Cain said the toddler’s mother had suffered an acquired brain injury in a childhood car crash and been diagnosed with epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.

She was under the care of a maternal and child health nurse but amid Victoria’s COVID-19 lockdowns two appointments took place over the phone and the toddler missed his one year, 18-month and two-year MCHN reviews.

Although the National Disability Insurance Service, the Transport Accident Commission and State Trustees had supported the family at various stages, their involvement ended in the years leading up to the boy’s death, and the children were not enrolled in childcare, kinder or any social activities.

A friend who had helped the mother clean her home up to early 2021 reported that it was dirty, with rotten food in the fridge, multiple mouldy milk bottles and that the children had soiled nappies, sometimes from the previous night.

The friend said she once found the older boy in a bath filled with cold water and bleach, and had observed the mother self-harming and struggling to leave the house from February or March 2021.

The boys and their mother spent five weeks staying with her parents in the months leading up to the tragedy, and the boys’ grandparents told the coroner’s investigation the children had loved playing outside and watching Bluey on TV.

They said their daughter prepared the boys a large pot of porridge for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch each day and encouraged them to eat fruit. But they said their daughter had refused to let them into her home because it was “messy”.

When they dropped by the family home on June 27, the grandparents helped their daughter buy groceries; however their offer to help clean the house was declined.

When police and paramedics responded to the triple zero call six days later, they found the bulk of the groceries still untouched, and the surviving boy desperate for food and drink. He drank 750ml of milk given to him by a police officer who noticed he was seeking out food.

The finding said the mother had refused to engage with the coroner’s process, and Cain found she might have been too scared to ask for help over fears of losing her children.

Police did not conduct a formal police interview with the mother, and the coroner said it remained unclear why a person “who externally presented as caring and attentive” failed to act in the ways she presented to others.

The coroner said a paediatric mortality report for the state had found that between September 2020 and January 2022 five children had died from complications of malnutrition and neglect, and that there was an “urgent need” to strengthen maternal and child health services to better detect vulnerable families.

“There appeared to be a significant disconnect between [the mother’s] ability to care for her children and the assessments of child protection, the regional NDIS service provider and her parents, who also tried to help her,” Cain found.

“Parents with intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairments can face barriers to engagement with services due to the experience of stigma and negative perceptions about their parenting capacity.

“This can translate to a reluctance to engage with services, outline support needs or request assistance due to fear of judgment and dissatisfaction with the available services.”

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