Malachi Subecz inquest begins in Auckland

The inquest into the death of a five-year-old who was killed by his carer has begun with hearing evidence about the injuries he suffered.

Warning: This story contains details which may be distressing to some readers

Malachi Subecz died at Starship Hospital in 2021.

He was being looked after by Michaela Barriball near Tauranga while his mother was in prison, and Barriball was later convicted of his murder.

At the Auckland Coroner's Court today, Police Detective Inspector Craig Rawlinson – who was responsible for investigating the death – expressed condolences to Malachi's mother, Jasmine Cotter, and cousin, Megan, who would speak as part of the inquest.

"It's terrible what they've had to go through," he said.

"I want to acknowledge the strength they've shown over the past three and a half years being a voice for Malachi, making sure that he's not forgotten and doing everything possible to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again."

Detective Inspector Rawlinson said government agencies needed to be better at sharing information to deal with child abuse.

He said Malachi's family immediately raised concerns about Malachi's safety, including his cousin emailing a picture which showed bruising around Malachi's eye to Oranga Tamariki (OT).

Concerns raised about Malachi's safety were either dismissed or not followed up.

"This is an example of people making decisions in isolation. They probably thought they were making sound decisions based on the little pieces of information they had."

He said the wider community also needed to be encouraged to report suspected child abuse.

He said a picture of Malachi at daycare was taken on his fifth birthday, where he was blowing out candles with a visible black eye.

While daycare staff noted their concerns, they accepted his carer's explanation that he had fallen off his bike.

He said Malachi also should not have been in the care of Barriball, as she was the daughter of his mother's co-defendant.

Rawlinson added that Barriball was in a volatile relationship with an overstayer from India, who was later convicted of assaulting her.

He said she resisted applications made by Malachi's biological family, who were trying to obtain custody of him.

"My assessment is that Barriball's possible motivations for keeping Malachi were that the Ministry for Social Development (MSD) had facilitated her receiving a portable cabin to live in, she was receiving a benefit from MSD, she believed having a dependant child would help [her partner] stay in New Zealand, or she wanted to use Malachi as leverage to control Jasmine Cotter who was a compellable witness in [her mother's] ongoing prosecution."

He said Malachi was "completely isolated" in the month leading up to his death; he stopped attending daycare and was supposed to start primary school, but never made it there.

During this time, Barriball's welfare payments were cancelled after she was found to be in a de facto relationship.

On November 1, 2021, she inflicted multiple blunt force injuries on Malachi.

An ambulance was called and she told first responders that Malachi had fallen while getting ready for school.

He had multiple bruises, a swollen left eye, blood around his nostrils, a burn on his stomach and a dilated eye.

At the time of his death he was severely malnourished, weighing just 16kg.

He was airlifted to Auckland's Starship Hospital and his life support was switched off on November 12.

Cotter was emotional, holding back tears, speaking about her son at the inquest on Monday.

She said she wanted people to remember how special the boy who loved dinosaurs and Lego was.

"He could pick up when something was wrong. He was that comforting person when you were feeling down.

"There was a lot more to him than his death."

She said she felt emotionally manipulated by her son's carer and that she was not informed about concerns regarding Malachi's well-being while she was in custody.

She said Malachi did not visit her in prison, at first, because of the pandemic restrictions.

She said she had seven or eight video calls with her son, but none towards the end of his life.

"In the phone calls, Malachi was complaining of having a sore head and talked about mamae [sores] but I didn't realise that he was being injured by the caregiver."

Cotter said she addressed it with the caregiver, who told her Malachi had fallen from his bike.

"That seemed logical enough to me, and it made sense as to why he was complaining of being sore.

"Some of the questions I have had since Malachi died include why other family members of the caregiver did not get charged, when they knew about what she was doing to him, and neither of them did or said anything.

"I am worried that OT did not act when the first report of concern was made, as much as it did suck because the report of concern was made by my own family.

"It upset me at the time because I thought my family did not trust my judgement.

"I said to the social worker that I had no concerns, and based on that, they closed the file.

"They made it seem sound to me, as though they had visited the property and seen Malachi, but they hadn't."

Cotter said she had asked OT to pay a random visit and report back.

"I thought that no news was good news, but to me, they didn't do their job properly, especially now I know they had a photo of bruising under Malachi's eye.

"If that wasn't enough to warrant a home visit, what is?"

She said if she had known at the time that there was a photo of bruising on her son's face, it "would have made a massive difference".

She also said it broke her heart to learn the daycare knew Malachi had been injured and did not report it to authorities.

"If there had been mandatory reporting, maybe that would have made a difference, and if I had known from the start about the daycare's concerns, that would have made a difference too."

The inquest will continue tomorrow, with Malachi's cousin expected to speak.

By Jessica Hopkins for rnz.co.nz