Kerri-Ann Conley: Meth-dealing mom declared 'fit parent' 10 days before she left her minor daughters to die in hot car
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
LOGAN, QUEENSLAND: New reports have emerged in the Kerri-Ann Conley case, the meth-dealing mother who pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges against her two young children. The Queensland native was shockingly declared ‘fit’ to take care of her toddlers despite evidence suggesting her struggle with drugs. The child services department is facing a lot of heat after new revelation came out.
The 30-year-old mother left both her daughters Darcey-Helen, aged two-and-a-half years and Chloe-Ann, 18 months, inside a car for nearly 9 hours with temperature reaching 60 C. Kerri-Ann Conley pleaded guilty to the charges in February and was slapped with nine years of jail term for ‘gross criminal neglect.’ What many are finding hard to digest is the evidence clearly suggesting that child services were aware of her long history of neglect and drug intake. Moreover, as per records, she even bluntly admitted that she was ready to swap her unborn child for an iPhone 7 on June 5, 2018, as per a Daily Mail report.
READ MORE
'Covered in burns, and blisters ‘peeling off’'
Another report alleged that her elder daughter Darcey-Halen was spotted with a bong in her mouth while running around her house on November 6, 2019. The investigation also found that serious complaints related to child safety made about Conley were not taken up or escalated to the investigation status, pointing failure of the child services department.
She was declared a fit parent ten days before she deliberately left her two daughters inside the car while they were sleeping. The court found Conley went to her friend’s place at 11.30 pm on November 22, 2019, before returning home at about 4 am. She left her daughters in their seats and went inside, used her phone for a few hours and fell asleep. The girls’ skin was hot to the touch, covered in burns and blisters and was ‘peeling off’ as paramedics tried to save them since they were under direct sunlight for hours, show court documents.
'Your grossly negligent conduct was...'
Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth referred Conley as a 'drug addict' in court and said the thought of the distressed children being awake and strapped in the hot car as they died was “too much to bear.” He added, “Your grossly negligent conduct was deciding to leave your vulnerable children uncared for, unheard and unobserved in the dark.” Darcey-Helen’s father Peter Jackson was surprised that she was not charged with murder. "I still think it should be murder. She should have got the 30 years,” he said, according to a report by ABC.
