Photo used in hero is stock image, not image of child mentioned in story

The moments that led up to a 7-month-old girl dying who was found with unexplained bruising has been disputed by the last two people who saw her alive.

The baby was in the care of her mother’s partner when she left for around 40 minutes before lunch on December 4th, 2015.

The partner, baby and mother cannot be named for legal reasons.

The partner had taken ice the night before the child died and he says the mother had left to pick up cannabis that she chopped up minutes before her child died.

The pair’s relationship was rocky and the night before the baby died, the partner had kicked the mother out. However, he let her back as he felt sorry for her and she returned.

Whether Family and Community Service case workers should have stepped in earlier to prevent the baby’s death is also being investigating.

Numerous reports had been made to FACS, including a report where the mother was driving drugged for long stints with her other child in the car.

On December 4th, the mother said she heard her baby “laughing” on a phone call with her partner.  

Around 10 minutes after she returned home, she found the baby with froth coming out of her nose and screamed she wasn’t breathing.

“I knew she was gone already,” she later told police.

Moments before the baby’s death have been detailed inconsistently in two police interviews by the partner and contradict the mother’s account.

He originally told police “I gave her a bottle, she drank a little bit … and I came back 20 minutes later,” but no food or liquids were found in her body.

In his first police interview, the partner said he was washing the dishes and vacuuming while the baby slept, but in the second interview claimed he was downstairs cleaning the fish tank.

The afternoon after the baby’s death, he sent messages to the mother saying he couldn’t handle life anymore and that he wished she’d never left the baby with him.

“I wish I could give my life to that beautiful little girl,” the court heard he texted her.

A post-mortem of the baby could not ascertain the cause of death, but Child Protection Unit Head at Westmead Children’s Hospital Dr Susan Marks suspected “vigorous shaking” may have caused the head to whiplash and contributed to her death.

The week-long inquest continues before NSW Deputy State Coroner Elaine Truscott.