A coroner investigating the death of a Cairns schoolgirl at the hands of her mother says the child was left alone to die in pain.
Faith was eight years old when her mother beat her to death with a metal vacuum cleaner pole in 2011.
A year earlier she was placed in foster care, but Child Safety allowed her to return home nine days later. The girl never returned to school.
In her findings handed down today, Coroner Jane Bentley said the decision by Child Safety was incorrect and premature.
She said an inadequate investigation into the girl's case was a direct result of understaffing and untenable workloads rather than the fault of individual officers.
Ms Bentley also found that Faith's school did all it could to help her but was hampered by a lack of information.
Child Safety lawyers told the inquest that the mother went to extraordinary lengths to hide the abuse, making Faith wear wigs and long-sleeved clothes.
In her findings, Ms Bentley recommended changes aimed at preventing other children from "slipping through the cracks", including setting up an information-sharing system to give schools and other child agencies access to basic Centrelink data.
Premier Campbell Newman says he has had discussions with the Federal Government about better sharing of information between agencies to protect children who are being abused.
"We need to be able to share information so that we can better understand what's going on, have a proper picture when protecting kids and also protecting families," he said.
Last year the girl's mother was jailed for seven years for manslaughter, while the girl's stepfather was also convicted on manslaughter charges for turning a blind eye to the abuse.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24338383/coroner-jane-bentley-releases-findings-on-death-of-8yo-girl-beaten-by-mother-with-vacuum-cleaner-pole/
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