A single dad’s failure to properly care for his severely disabled daughter after her mother abandoned them could see him jailed by a Queensland court.

September 25, 2019

A dumped Sydney’s dad’s failure to properly feed and care for his severely disabled daughter after her mother abandoned them could see him jailed.

Ronald Gary Smith, 42, hoped moving his family to Queensland’s warmth would improve four-year-old Jade’s health.

But days after arriving in Brisbane in mid-2014, her mother fled the family, leaving Smith – a former furniture removalist who didn’t attend high school – to care for their daughter alone.

It was the first in a series of events that ended when Jade died of acute aspiration pneumonia in June 2015, Brisbane District Court has heard.

She weighed just 8.5kgs – almost half her body weight before she left NSW.

A post-mortem examination found she was severely malnourished with deep bed sores and bone erosion, prosecutor Julie Aylward says.

“(Jade) was denied the necessities of life because she was not adequately fed and her painful injuries were not addressed,” she said quoting a doctor’s report.

“Because of her condition she was vulnerable to aspiration pneumonia but the fact she was very underweight would have made her more vulnerable.”

The court heard Jade suffered a number of serious conditions from birth, including brain abnormalities and was unable to move or communicate.

She needed to be tube-fed a specially prepared diet previously co-ordinated by NSW Health.

Ms Aylward said Smith failed to transition her healthcare to Queensland specialists despite authorities in both states attempting to arrange it.

Instead, he fed her nutritionally incomplete toddler formula he brought from a chemist.

It was wilful neglect that made an already vulnerable child more susceptible to infection, Ms Aylward said.

“Her care was entrusted to her father and he should have been the most protective person in her life.”

“He had no other job, he was with her all the time, so he would have seen the weight loss she was suffering,” she said.

Despite this, doctors fell short of attributing Jade’s death to the “cruelty that she suffered”.

Smith pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty. He will be sentenced on Thursday.