The boy’s mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, drowned her son in March 2017, and attempted to drown her older son.
She was found not guilty of murder on mental health grounds, after a Supreme Court judge found she suffered from a series of psychiatric conditions and held a delusional belief that she had to drown her sons in order to protect them.
Sergeant Phillip Cookson told the coronial inquest at Deniliquin he was the senior officer who signed off on an apprehended domestic violence order protecting the woman’s mother in January 2016.
When questioned by the senior counsel assisting the coroner Kristina Stern as to why the two boys’ names were not also put on the order as they had been “playing nearby” when an assault by their mother on their grandmother occurred, he said he thought they were automatically protected by the order as they also had a domestic relationship with their grandmother.
“What was before me was a minor assault matter. There was no evidence to suggest both children were in direct harm or there was a direct threat, or they had previously been harmed by the mother,” Sgt Cookson said.
“I was focused purely on the need to protect the grandmother.
“Nothing to me was saying she was going to harm these children. Not that I could see. Nothing I had gave me fears they needed protection from their mother.”
Former NSW Police Force officer Lisa Hyne gave evidence that she applied for the apprehended violence protection order for the grandmother.
She also said at the time it was her understanding that while the children were not named on the order, they would be protected by it.
However when questioned about two special conditions on the order — particularly one about the mother not being allowed near the grandmother if she was alcohol or drug affected — she said on her reading of it in court she could see that there was not an ‘s’ on the end of person and therefore the condition only applied to the grandmother.
“At the time I took it out I thought it protected the children,” she said.
Sgt Roger Campton was questioned about a call to the woman’s house in February 2017, where he formed the opinion “. . . she had some mental health issues”.
He told the court he had spoken to the woman about whether she was getting any mental health help and she told him she had made appointments.
He also told the court he never had any concerns about the safety of the children.
Sen Constable Rachel Claydon told the inquest about a theft from a business on March 1 where the mother was the suspect as she had been recognised from CCTV footage.
The following day she said officers were tasked to find the mother and her two children who were missing.
Another officer, Constable James Siggee, gave evidence he was on duty on the morning of March 2, when the children’s grandmother came in to tell police she had information about the missing children.
He said she was “a little frantic, but fairly calm under that”.
Constable Siggee told the inquest he had not known about the missing children and had passed her over to another officer to talk to.
He heard the grandmother saying her daughter was near Bendigo and she was going to go and get the children.
In his statement, Constable Siggee said he remembered the woman saying: “I’m not worried about the kids, they were fine. I could hear them laughing. I am concerned for her.”
The inquest continues on Friday, May 21.