"Gross criminal neglect": Brisbane mum receives sentence for death of daughters in hot car
Queenslander Kerri-Anne Conley has been sentenced to nine years in prison for the deaths of her two young daughters.
The 30-year-old woman from Logan pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter - of two-and-a-half-year-old Darcey-Helen and 18-month-old Chloe-Ann - in Brisbane Supreme Court this week, and today received her sentence from Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth.
Initially, she had been charged with the murder of her daughter under a law that expanded the definition of the offence, including reckless indifference to human life. However, this Tuesday Kerri-Ann gave a guilty plea to the downgraded manslaughter charges, as well as to the possession of dangerous drugs and utensils.
In November 2019, Kerri-Ann had taken her daughters Darcey-Helen and Chloe-Ann to her friend’s house, and then made the “deliberate decision” to leave the toddlers in their car seats upon returning home, before going inside to sleep. Both girls died of hyperthermia at their Waterford West home.
"Your first, grossly negligent conduct was in deciding to leave your children in that vulnerable place, uncared for, unheard, and unobserved in the dark," Justice Peter Applegarth declared when handing down Kerri-Ann’s sentence.
"Not checking on the children and securing their safety at 6am was another aspect of your ongoing, gross criminal neglect of your duty of care as their mother,” he went on to say.
"One can only hope that these little girls slowly succumbed to the growing heat of the day much earlier that morning and faded into a deep sleep from which they never returned.
"The alternative of them being awake, distressed, and trapped in their seats is too much to bear thinking about for too long."
Kerri-Ann allegedly went to sleep at 6am, after spending time on her phone, and came to find the girls nine hours later. It is estimated that temperatures within the car reached up to 61 degrees Celsius through the day, and the children were lifeless as she pulled them from the vehicle.
When paramedics arrived, the girls were hot to the touch, covered in blisters, and had skin peeling from them. They were tragically declared dead at the scene.
The court also heard that before Kerri-Ann even contacted emergency services, she attempted to dispose of drug paraphernalia.
Justice Applegarth was firm in the belief that "no child should have a parent who uses methamphetamine". Kerri-Ann later admitted to the police that she had taken ice the day before.
Of Kerri-Ann’s “egregious breach of trust” against her defenceless children, Crown Prosecutor Sarah Dennis stated that “they were left asleep and presumably restrained in their car seats without the ability or means to free themselves or to seek assistance or to protect themselves from the searing temperatures.”
“They were entirely dependent on the defendant, their mother, for their basic needs, one being to keep them protected from harm,” she added. “Rather than doing that, the actions of the defendant exposed them to harm.”
Sarah Dennis went on to tell the court that the girls’ deaths could easily have been avoided, and that it wasn’t forgetfulness that had been the cause, but instead Kerri-Ann’s carelessness.
“Her behaviour,” she said, “represented an apathy to her own children that was callous.”
Justice Applegarth noted that Kerri-Ann had been the victim of an abusive childhood, and acknowledged her diagnosis in custody of a depressive disorder and guilt induced psychosocial stress.
"I accept you are remorseful and not a day goes by that you don't think about the death of your daughters and the effect this had on others," he said.
Ultimately, Justice Applegarth said that Kerri-Ann’s meth use had led to her daughters’ deaths, and that her previous drug convictions had done nothing to inform her parenting. It was reportedly not the first time she had left her children alone in the car.
Kerri-Ann has already served over three years on remand - the majority of which was in custody - with Justice Applegarth having declared this as time served, and will be eligible for parole late November 2024.
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