Child Safety Services did not cause death of children in care, but protection practices flawed

The infant deaths inquest looked into the deaths of six babies and one child, all who had connections with the Child Safety Service.

One of the babies drowned in the bath, others died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome while co-sleeping, and one female child and her baby son died in a car crash.

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Coroner Olivia McTaggart released her findings into the deaths on Friday, but withheld the public release of the report until next week due to the need for name redaction.

She said she had to consider whether Child Safety Services played a significant part in the deaths of the baby boy and child.

"One of the main issues I had to consider in relation to [the children] was whether Child Safety Services' poor performance ... played such a significant role in their deaths that I could find that that service caused or contributed to their death," she said.

"I have not been able to find that that is the case."

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Coroner McTaggart did say, for the purposes of informing the family who were in the court, that there were serious flaws in the child protection system.

"I have found ... there were significant defects and issues with child protection practices in relation to the children, in particular [the baby]."

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