MURDERED BABY SAGA CONTINUES

A murder inquiry into the poisoning of a one-week-old baby at Perth's main maternity hospital will be reopened after a grossly inadequate investigation into the death. In handing down his findings yesterday, West Australian Coroner Alastair Hope was scathing about the flawed inquiry into the baby's tragic death. Mr Hope said there had been disgraceful delays, which he blamed on police, King Edward Memorial Hospital management and the nurse's union. As a result of the seriously inadequate investigation, Mr Hope could not find who was responsible for the deliberate poisoning of the baby and said all nurses who had access to the boy remained under suspicion.

The baby, who is not named for cultural reasons, was born at the hospital on November 8, 2000. Seven days later, he was given a lethal overdose of codeine and paracetemol that caused respiratory collapse and substantial brain damage. He died four months later.

Mr Hope was told that staff initially thought the baby was a SIDS victim, but tests accidentally uncovered the massive overdose. Police were immediately notified of the poisoning, but investigators from the child abuse unit left to hospital management the task of obtaining statements from staff. The baby's mother, 37-year-old Sharon Anderson, was interviewed by police shortly after her baby's collapse and denied giving her son drugs.

Mr Hope said several factors, including limited access to medication, indicated Ms Anderson was not responsible for the death. But Mr Hope said it was unsatisfactory for police to rely on hospital management to provide information from nurses, with some statements not taken until up to a year after the baby's collapse. "There is no doubt that the police investigation of this death was seriously inadequate," Mr Hope said. "Witnesses should have been contacted directly and rosters of staff and other original documents held by the hospital seized."

Aboriginal Legal Service director Dennis Eggington yesterday welcomed the findings and said police urgently needed to investigate the death to provide Ms Anderson and her family with some kind of closure. West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said he was yet to see the coroner's report but he was disappointed by the fact the investigation was not up to standard. While Mr O'Callaghan stopped short of apologising to the family, he said Mr Hope's recommendation to continue the investigation would be followed with "appropriate" resources.

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