{"id":566692,"date":"2026-08-12T11:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566692\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:50:18","slug":"sadie-leigh-inquest-hears-from-neighbour-who-often-cared-for-the-toddler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/566692\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadie-Leigh inquest hears from neighbour who often cared for the toddler"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the criminal process is finished, a coroner\u2019s inquest<\/a> before Coroner Tracey Fitzgibbon is seeking to determine how and when her injuries occurred, and whether they were non-accidental.<\/p>\n

The medical evidence has been heard by the coroner<\/a>, and the inquest is now focusing on civilian evidence.<\/p>\n

Neighbour Shantelle Flynn had known Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum, who can\u2019t be named for legal reasons, for about three months.<\/p>\n

The pair had become close as they bonded over their children, who were about six months apart.<\/p>\n

Flynn would have Sadie-Leigh at her house most days, and would encourage Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum, offering support and parenting advice as the two children pottered between the adjoining flats. <\/p>\n

In the days leading up to Sadie-Leigh\u2019s death, Flynn lent a vaporiser to Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum, after hearing Sadie-Leigh coughing in the night.<\/p>\n

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

She knew the mother and daughter\u2019s rhythms and routines, as well as that of Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother\u2019s partner, Adrian Clancy.<\/p>\n

In statements to police that she made immediately after Sadie-Leigh\u2019s death, she described the dynamics, the routines and her observations of interactions. These were also discussed during the two earlier trials.<\/p>\n

During the inquest, questions from lawyers focused on the critical hour or so before Sadie-Leigh was carried to Flynn\u2019s door by Clancy, floppy and hanging over his arms.<\/p>\n

Flynn had told police the toddler looked \u201cdead\u201d, but was breathing intermittently. Flynn called 111 at 3.49pm on March 27, as another neighbour was giving the toddler CPR on Flynn\u2019s floor.<\/p>\n

She read her police statements in full during the inquest, and then answered questions from Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother\u2019s lawyer, Ben Smith, and counsel for the police, Richard Jenson.<\/p>\n

Smith asked her about when she helped Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum get the toddler out of the car after they\u2019d returned home with some Burger King.<\/p>\n

Sadie-Leigh had spent the morning with her maternal grandmother, before being picked up as she was grizzly and unwell.<\/p>\n

Flynn said the child had been \u201chot and bothered\u201d when she got her out of the car, but was not in any pain.<\/p>\n

She had pulled the child\u2019s Bonds Wondersuit off her shoulders and down to her waist to help cool her down.<\/p>\n

\"Sadie-LeighSadie-Leigh was just 17-months-old when she died.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d taken her inside, before returning to her own flat at some point to retrieve some Irish Moss cough syrup.<\/p>\n

But the exact details of where Sadie-Leigh was throughout the time she was in the flat, and if and when she\u2019d been put to bed by Clancy, had Flynn unsure.<\/p>\n

She was confident that she returned from her flat with the Irish Moss and drew it up with Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum, before waiting outside the door of Sadie-Leigh\u2019s room as Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother attempted to give it to the toddler.<\/p>\n

But she couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Smith reassured her that it was okay if she was having difficulty recalling details, but Flynn replied she was \u201cfrustrated\u201d as she wanted to remember, and \u201cremember it correctly\u201d.<\/p>\n

What she did know was that at whatever point she left, she returned home to spend time with her son.<\/p>\n

Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum had popped by soon after, and offered to take Flynn\u2019s son to the dairy across the road to get a \u201ctreat\u201d. <\/p>\n

CCTV footage confirmed this visit took only a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n

Flynn couldn\u2019t remember if Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum had stayed at her flat after they returned, but said typically she would just drop him back and head home.<\/p>\n

A short time later, she saw Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mum leave in her car, and understood she was going to a beauty appointment.<\/p>\n

That was about 3.30pm.<\/p>\n

A short time later, another neighbour popped by to speak with Flynn, and the two women stood at Flynn\u2019s front door, which was right next to Sadie-Leigh\u2019s bedroom. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d had a coughing fit while she was in her kitchen or at her front door, she\u2019d have heard it.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d heard nothing.<\/p>\n

\"CoronerCoroner Tracey Fitzgibbon. <\/p>\n

Nor had she heard any \u201ccrashing or banging\u201d, as Smith put to her, when Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother administered the Irish Moss.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d heard a small whimper of protest, and further explained that Irish Moss is an \u201cold school medicine\u201d that is \u201cstrong\u201d, and kids didn\u2019t typically like it.<\/p>\n

Flynn also clarified something she\u2019d said in an earlier statement, which she felt had been taken out of context.<\/p>\n

She told police that Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother had confided in her about hitting the toddler to the head.<\/p>\n

In her evidence at the inquest, Flynn explained that would perhaps be better described as a corrective \u201clittle clip\u201d, pulling a child \u201cback into line\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like a nasty thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cComparing to your own parenting it wasn\u2019t something you were concerned about?\u201d Smith asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Flynn replied.<\/p>\n

Flynn had been the one to call Sadie-Leigh\u2019s mother to let her know that Sadie-Leigh wasn\u2019t in a good way, and was on her way to the hospital, with Clancy accompanying her in the ambulance.<\/p>\n

Flynn said a lingering question she had, was why Clancy had changed his clothes before he went in the ambulance.<\/p>\n

She observed Clancy had changed from shorts to trousers before going in the ambulance.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously this has happened so long ago and over the years some things stand out to you and you always think, \u2018I wonder why that happened?\u2019 or \u2018why was that or how did that unfold?\u2019,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think one of the things that I\u2019ve always thought about is, I wonder why he got changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbour Leesa Hall, who was at the door with Flynn, did not observe a change in clothing, and said she couldn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

She too said she didn\u2019t hear any noise from Sadie-Leigh\u2019s room before Clancy arrived \u2013 no crashes, bangs, coughs, or crying.<\/p>\n

The inquest continues.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that the criminal process is finished, a coroner\u2019s inquest before Coroner Tracey Fitzgibbon is seeking to determine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[213056,2082,71,42,1350,13999,6377,43,9061,277810,223,13835,40,38,41,39,1299],"class_list":["post-566692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cared","tag-for","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-hears","tag-inquest","tag-neighbour","tag-news","tag-often","tag-sadieleigh","tag-the","tag-toddler","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}