Mum killed 'possessed' baby son: inquest
Tim Dornin, AAP July 15, 2013, 1:10 pm
A mother who killed her two-year-old son by standing on his mouth and chest believed she was expelling an evil spirit, a court has been told.
Rachael Hadley was acutely psychotic at the time and didn't understand the consequences of her actions, counsel assisting Amy Cacas told the South Australian Coroners Court on Monday.
"She didn't know she was killing her son," Ms Cacas said.
"She believed she was expelling an evil spirit from him and expected him to recover."
Duke Hadley died on November 5, 2009 from asphyxiation caused by compression of his neck and chest.
His mother was charged with his murder but found mentally incompetent. She has since been released on licence.
Ms Cacas said the issue for the inquest would be whether or not anything more could have been done in relation to Ms Hadley's treatment to have prevented the boy's death.
The boy's father, Jason Hura, told the court that Ms Hadley had twice been admitted to a mental health clinic for treatment.
But he said she would stop taking her medication because it made her sleep all day.
In the period before the boy's death she had been "getting paranoid" and was constantly locking all the doors and getting angry, he said.
Her behaviour included a belief that God lived upstairs and that God would punish her partner.
On the night before Duke died Mr Hura went to the clinic where Ms Hadley had been treated and spoke at length to an emergency service in a bid to have someone come to her house.
When he returned home Ms Hadley was sitting in the cellar where she stayed for much of the night, sometimes talking to herself.
The next day Mr Hura went to work and took Ms Hadley's older child to school.
He returned during the day to find a calling card from the emergency mental health service, indicating to him that no one answered when they knocked.
When he returned to the house later that day Ms Hadley refused to let him in and urged him to "go and get a gun" so he could kill her.
Mr Hura called police and they eventually gained access to the home where the boy was found dead in his cot.
The inquest continues.
