An 11-week-old baby known to South Australia's Department for Child Protection died in a squalid and overcrowded house littered with faeces and infested with cockroaches, where drug use and domestic violence took place.
WARNING: Readers may find details in this story distressing.
ABC News cannot reveal the baby boy's name or show his image after the Coroners Court suppressed his identity ahead of an inquest starting on Tuesday.
He and his older siblings had been the subject of 23 notifications to the department before his death in November 2018.
The children's mother – who has "longstanding mental health" concerns — had her first child at the age of 14, her second at 16 and the boy whose death is subject to the inquest at age 17.
She was spared jail earlier this year and released on a good behaviour bond after admitting to neglecting her children, pleading guilty to three counts of failing to provide necessary food, clothing and accommodation.
The coronial inquest will hear "extensive evidence" of the family's history with the Department for Child Protection.
Counsel assisting the coroner Sally Giles told a hearing in the Coroners Court last week that the notifications made to child protection related to the squalid conditions of the home, neglect and domestic violence.
"Notifications include details of the mother lacking maturity and parenting skills, various concerns about the unhygienic home environment, in particular about faeces being found in the hallway of the home, and the home being overcrowded with 10 people living at the address at one point," she told the court.
Ms Giles also told the hearing of "the father of one of the children threatening to kill his mother", and said there were "concerns about drug use by a male in the family home and concerns about the mother's mental health, including post-natal depression".
Help not accepted by mother
Ms Giles told the court despite being offered support from the department, the children's mother had not engaged with services and the home remained "squalid and unsuitable for children".
Ms Giles said all the rooms in the family home smelt of "faeces, urine and rotting food".
"There will be a number of descriptions of the house [during the inquest] which will detail there being faeces on the floor, rotten food in the pantry, on the floor and on the stove in the kitchen," she said.
"Several baby bottles which contained putrid liquid which appeared to be curdled milk, no food in the fridge, a small amount of food in the pantry, but which was infested with cockroaches, a baby formula tin which was open in the kitchen surrounded by dead flies, soiled nappies in the cot."
The court heard a forensic paediatrician said the environment placed the children at "risk of both physical and psychological harm and was not considered to be adequate in relation to what is necessary for optimum child health and wellbeing".
The surviving children remain in the mother's care, with the court hearing that since her baby's death she had made significant improvements.
Reasons for suppression detailed
In his reasons for suppressing the identity of the boy, along with his siblings and parents, state coroner David Whittle said the mother's parenting capacity was already fragile and any publicity would cause her more hardship.
In his reasons, Mr Whittle said the surviving children were also the victims of their mother's neglect and protecting their identities would "insulate" them from re-victimisation.
He said the children were likely to be "fragile" and the "degrading lack of care" they were subjected to was "extreme".
"I have no difficulty in concluding that they would be subject to undue hardship if a [suppression] order is not made," Mr Whittle wrote in his reasons.
He disagreed with media submissions that showing an image of the deceased child, and publishing his first name only, would not identify his parents or surviving siblings.
