By SARAH FARNSWORTH.
A babysitter admitted in a taped phone call that she did not properly look after a child in her care and would call babies names like “fat one” and “it”, a coronial inquest has been told.
The inquest is trying to determine how 10-month-old Chloe Murphy died of horrific brain injuries three days after being left in the care of Ketapat Jenkins in December 2010.
Jenkins has been excused from giving evidence at the coronial inquest on the grounds she could incriminate herself.
She was acquitted of a charge of child homicide in 2014.
The inquest has heard phone intercepts recorded a conversation between Ms Jenkins and her close friend, Surapat Charuchinda, two months after baby Chloe’s death.
The conversation was held in Thai and has been translated to English.
In the call, Ms Jenkins referred to a one-year-old boy she minded as “the fat one” and “motherf****r”, and called Chloe “it”.
Parts of the 24-minute phone call quoting Ms Jenkins were read out in court.
“…think about it. I even said to dad, that really, no offence, but the fat one eh, should have a higher chance, like, of dying.”
“Because I didn’t look after the fat one proper eh, I’m going to be honest.”
“It was like, sometimes, clandestinely it was let out, slipped out of the walker, sometimes, and I f***king ducked out for a bit of cigarettes as well, you know this.”
“Next, I turned around, the motherf*****r fell to the floor, and it was very dangerous, something like that.”
“In my mind, I thought, the fat one… f***, will I be able to get through this?”
The court heard Ms Jenkins also questioned why baby Chloe was left with her, given she was so young.
“Let’s say hypothetically that, if you gave me a child to look after, right, then I said, Kat [her friend], the first time it cried like really badly, cried like really loud…”
“Would you bring it back and leave it [with me] again I wonder?”
“Since we could be thinking … hmmm maybe the child wasn’t very happy, something along that line…”
Translated comments sound rude, but they’re not: friend
The inquest heard baby Chloe had been left with Ms Jenkins on two occasions and would get upset away from her mother.
Speaking through an interpreter, Ms Charuchinda told the court the term “fat one” was an endearing term in Thailand.
She explained it was an emotional conversation between two close friends and Ms Jenkins would often exaggerate.
“You have to understand, when we talk, it’s in Thai and when translated, it turns out rude,” Ms Charuchinda told the court.
“In Thai it’s not like this.”
Ms Charuchinda said her friend told her she had never dropped baby Chloe and believed her limpness and difficulty breathing was due to asthma or epilepsy.
She said her story had not changed once over the past five years.
The court heard on the night baby Chloe was rushed to hospital Ms Jenkins sent a text to the baby’s father, Anthony Murphy, saying she felt terrible.
The inquest continues.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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