'She looked dead': Neighbour gives evidence about toddler Sadie-Leigh

A neighbour of Sadie-Leigh Gardner broke down in tears as she tried to recall events and timings before the toddler lay unresponsive on her flat floor.

An inquest is underway into the death of 17-month-old Sadie-Leigh, who died on March 29, 2019, in Starship Children’s Hospital from blunt force head injuries.

Sadie-Leigh’s death was the subject of two earlier murder trials, in which her mother’s partner Adrian Clancy was charged with her murder.

He was found guilty at the first, but after the Court of Appeal quashed that conviction, was acquitted at the second.

Now that the criminal process is finished, a coroner’s inquest before Coroner Tracey Fitzgibbon is seeking to determine how and when her injuries occurred, and whether they were non-accidental.

The medical evidence has been heard by the coroner, and the inquest is now focusing on civilian evidence.

Neighbour Shantelle Flynn had known Sadie-Leigh’s mum, who can’t be named for legal reasons, for about three months.

The pair had become close as they bonded over their children, who were about six months apart.

Flynn would have Sadie-Leigh at her house most days, and would encourage Sadie-Leigh’s mum, offering support and parenting advice as the two children pottered between the adjoining flats.

In the days leading up to Sadie-Leigh’s death, Flynn lent a vaporiser to Sadie-Leigh’s mum, after hearing Sadie-Leigh coughing in the night.

The walls between the flats were thin, and she could hear when Sadie-Leigh woke overnight, and her mother got up to her.

She knew the mother and daughter’s rhythms and routines, as well as that of Sadie-Leigh’s mother’s partner, Adrian Clancy.

In statements to police that she made immediately after Sadie-Leigh’s death, she described the dynamics, the routines and her observations of interactions. These were also discussed during the two earlier trials.

During the inquest, questions from lawyers focused on the critical hour or so before Sadie-Leigh was carried to Flynn’s door by Clancy, floppy and hanging over his arms.

Flynn had told police the toddler looked “dead”, but was breathing intermittently. Flynn called 111 at 3.49pm on March 27, as another neighbour was giving the toddler CPR on Flynn’s floor.

She read her police statements in full during the inquest, and then answered questions from Sadie-Leigh’s mother’s lawyer, Ben Smith, and counsel for the police, Richard Jenson.

Smith asked her about when she helped Sadie-Leigh’s mum get the toddler out of the car after they’d returned home with some Burger King.

Sadie-Leigh had spent the morning with her maternal grandmother, before being picked up as she was grizzly and unwell.

Flynn said the child had been “hot and bothered” when she got her out of the car, but was not in any pain.

She had pulled the child’s Bonds Wondersuit off her shoulders and down to her waist to help cool her down.

Sadie-Leigh was just 17-months-old when she died.

She’d taken her inside, before returning to her own flat at some point to retrieve some Irish Moss cough syrup.

But the exact details of where Sadie-Leigh was throughout the time she was in the flat, and if and when she’d been put to bed by Clancy, had Flynn unsure.

She was confident that she returned from her flat with the Irish Moss and drew it up with Sadie-Leigh’s mum, before waiting outside the door of Sadie-Leigh’s room as Sadie-Leigh’s mother attempted to give it to the toddler.

But she couldn’t remember if she got the syringe back before she left, or if she simply left them to it, and as she tried to recall the details, she began to cry.

Smith reassured her that it was okay if she was having difficulty recalling details, but Flynn replied she was “frustrated” as she wanted to remember, and “remember it correctly”.

What she did know was that at whatever point she left, she returned home to spend time with her son.

Sadie-Leigh’s mum had popped by soon after, and offered to take Flynn’s son to the dairy across the road to get a “treat”.

CCTV footage confirmed this visit took only a couple of minutes.

Flynn couldn’t remember if Sadie-Leigh’s mum had stayed at her flat after they returned, but said typically she would just drop him back and head home.

A short time later, she saw Sadie-Leigh’s mum leave in her car, and understood she was going to a beauty appointment.

That was about 3.30pm.

A short time later, another neighbour popped by to speak with Flynn, and the two women stood at Flynn’s front door, which was right next to Sadie-Leigh’s bedroom.

One thing Flynn seemed sure about was that she never heard a sound from the bedroom during that conversation, nor immediately before when she was in her kitchen.

Clancy claimed the toddler had a 30-second coughing fit a few minutes before he went in, checked her, and found her struggling to breathe.

Flynn told the inquest she would often hear Sadie-Leigh coughing from her bedroom, which was towards the back of the flat, so she knew if she’d had a coughing fit while she was in her kitchen or at her front door, she’d have heard it.

She’d heard nothing.

Coroner Tracey Fitzgibbon.

Nor had she heard any “crashing or banging”, as Smith put to her, when Sadie-Leigh’s mother administered the Irish Moss.

She’d heard a small whimper of protest, and further explained that Irish Moss is an “old school medicine” that is “strong”, and kids didn’t typically like it.

Flynn also clarified something she’d said in an earlier statement, which she felt had been taken out of context.

She told police that Sadie-Leigh’s mother had confided in her about hitting the toddler to the head.

In her evidence at the inquest, Flynn explained that would perhaps be better described as a corrective “little clip”, pulling a child “back into line”.

“It wasn’t like a nasty thing,” she said.

“Comparing to your own parenting it wasn’t something you were concerned about?” Smith asked.

“No,” Flynn replied.

Flynn had been the one to call Sadie-Leigh’s mother to let her know that Sadie-Leigh wasn’t in a good way, and was on her way to the hospital, with Clancy accompanying her in the ambulance.

Flynn said a lingering question she had, was why Clancy had changed his clothes before he went in the ambulance.

She observed Clancy had changed from shorts to trousers before going in the ambulance.

“Obviously this has happened so long ago and over the years some things stand out to you and you always think, ‘I wonder why that happened?’ or ‘why was that or how did that unfold?’,” she said.

“And I think one of the things that I’ve always thought about is, I wonder why he got changed.”

Neighbour Leesa Hall, who was at the door with Flynn, did not observe a change in clothing, and said she couldn’t remember.

She too said she didn’t hear any noise from Sadie-Leigh’s room before Clancy arrived – no crashes, bangs, coughs, or crying.

The inquest continues.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.