A youth worker who was supervising a 13-year-old Queensland boy in state care, when he drowned at a Cedar Creek Falls on April 8, 2021 has been cleared of fault in a coronial inquest.
The young boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ignored his carer’s instructions to stay out of the turbulent and murky water, and jumped into the Gold Coast swimming hole before fatally swimming past his depth, findings published on Monday said.
His parents insisted their son would have survived if supervising Hope Support Services youth worker, La La, restrained their son, but that submission was rejected by Coroner Carol Lee, who noted that doing so may have made the outcome worse.
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The young boy, and another child in residential care with the Queensland Department of Child Safety, had been reported missing in the days before the fatal incident.
La had just picked them up from the police station with plans to re-engage them back into placement, and a scheduled library visit was replaced with a McDonald’s lunch and a swim in a bid to encourage positive behaviour.
It was a calm and sunny day, and La agreed they could check conditions at the Tamborine National Park swimming spot, which can sometimes have dangerous currents, and head to a public swimming pool if the water looked unsafe.
When they arrived at Falls, where the boys had enjoyed swimming several times before, La decided the water was too unsafe — but the boys ignored his instructions to stay out, and jumped into the water anyway.
The 13-year-old followed the other resident into the deeper section of water, where he began to struggle. “Hurry up and grab me,” he called to the other resident, La’s statement of events said.
“La observed the 13-year-old child yank at the other boy’s leg, who then yelled out, ‘La, I can’t grab him’.
“La ran to the water and jumped in. Before hitting the water, he heard the 13-year-old child yell, ‘help’.”
La’s legs were restricted and his was head dunked underwater during several “strenuous and persistent” attempts to save the frantic child who eventually went under and did not resurface
A bystander held on to La as he continued to dive and search for the boy, but the pair eventually abandoned their efforts — other bystanders pulled them back onto the rocks with a long branch and called emergency services just before 5pm.
A dive squad located the boy at the deepest part of the rock pool, about 4-5m deep, at 9.13pm.
Lee found that the situation was unforeseeable, and did not accept submissions from the boy’s parents that avoiding physical restraint was a contributing factor in his death, and that La’s risk assessment training was inadequate.
She said the risk changed once the water conditions were deemed unsafe, and by the time La’s instructions were ignored, department risk assessment practices “were functionally irrelevant”.
“Leaving aside the 13-year-old child’s human rights, and whilst not in any way minimising the tragic death that occurred, physical restraint had the very real prospect of escalating the situation to a point where the outcome could have been much worse,” Lee said.
“La did the best he could have done in the circumstances. La’s actions were heroic, and he has personally suffered as a consequence in the aftermath of the accident.”
The coroner did not find the department and HSS systems were deficient, but called the lack of standardising guidelines for department risked a reporting “gap” that could be closed for quality improvement.
She added that formal water safety training for HSS staff is supported by both the service provider and the boys’ parents.
HSS has revisited policies and procedures to strengthen them beyond what is required by licensing, the report said.