Wagga's Coroner's Court hands down findings into death of Kooringal baby Archer Crichton

Two-month-old Archer Ty Butler-Crichton died in the early hours of April 24, 2017, after he was found lying face down and bloodied on a couch in his home. 

In a coronial inquest held in Wagga on Thursday, six witnesses were called to give evidence before magistrate Erin Kennedy.

Archer’s mother, Amelia Butler, told the court her son had been unwell with cold-like symptoms in the two weeks leading up to his death. “I took him to the doctor’s to get his immunisations, and he checked his chest and stuff and said there wasn’t much they could do because he was so little,” Ms Butler said.

Ms Butler also admitted to the court that she had been drinking and smoking marijuana a few hours before Archer’s death. 

Andrew Crichton, who had also consumed alcohol and marijuana that day, told the court he had fallen asleep on the couch with his son Archer sleeping on him when his nine-year-old daughter woke him up. 

She had been sleeping in another room with her twin sister, but started feeling unwell, so Mr Crichton got up, laid Archer down on the couch, and went in to settle her. He then laid down with his daughter and fell asleep.

“I woke up, realised I’d been asleep, and my first thought was ‘s---, Archer’s on the couch’,” Mr Crichton said.

When he returned to the living room, he found Archer lying face down on the couch, leading him to believe the infant had rolled onto his front.

“I picked him up and, when I got him off the couch, he didn’t feel as warm as he usually does, he felt cooler, and he had blood on his face and he wasn’t breathing,” he said.

Mr Crichton then woke Ms Butler and told her to call an ambulance. “They asked me if he was breathing, and I checked and said ‘no’, and they told us to put him on the ground and start CPR,” Ms Butler said. 

Intensive care paramedic Mark Stevenson, who was called to the scene at 4:45am, said Archer was “pulseless and not breathing” when he arrived to take over CPR.

Mr Stevenson also described finding fresh blood on Archer’s face and what appeared to be a bruise on his left temple.

He said he and his team took Archer into an ambulance; he arrived at Wagga Base Hospital at 5:22am and was pronounced dead at 5:43am. 

Sergeant David Dechene, who was the first police supervisor on the scene at 5:12am, said they initially believed Archer had been assaulted.

“Constables Mathem and Cox arrived a few minutes before me – they had a conversation with the ambulance (staff) and, as a result of that, he told me the child had been assaulted and they were taking the child up to the hospital,” he said.

Sergeant Dechene told the court Mr Crichton was “very distressed”. “He was quite uncontrollable emotionally – I think he, when I asked him questions, he did say to me he’d killed his child, but his answers to me weren’t full and complete answers in that he answered my questions and he stopped, so I had to prompt him to continue,” Sergeant Dechene said. “I formed the opinion at that stage I had no option but to arrest him at that time.” 

However, the officer in charge of the case, Detective Senior Constable Dominic Burton, said it was not long until Mr Crichton was released. “Initially, I was informed that he had died from unnatural circumstances involved, so we investigated his father Andrew in relation to that … but based on a lack of evidence, he was released in the afternoon of that day,” Detective Senior Constable Burton said.

“The circumstances of how Archer ended up in that position, I’m not sure; however, I believe there’s no criminality involved in the way that Archer died.” 

The final witness called to give evidence was Dr Jane Vuletic, who performed Archer’s post-mortem on April 26 last year. 

Dr Vuletic’s final report found that Archer’s death was caused by sudden unexplained death in infancy, which was inconsistent with the hospital’s original finding of asphyxiation combined with a respiratory issue. However, Dr Vuletic quickly explained that these two explanations for Archer’s death probably went hand-in-hand. 

“What I may have indicated to the police is that the mechanism for death may have been to do with positional asphyxiation with an underlying chest infection, but these are part of the syndrome, if you like, of sudden unexpected death in infancy,” she said.

Dr Vuletic also said she saw no sign of bruising or injury on Archer, despite the paramedics’ initial finding of bruising to his left temple. 

When asked if there were any potential risk factors present in the case, Dr Vuletic listed several. 

“Some of the factors here, in my opinion, were that the baby was on a dangerous sleeping environment on a lounge, the finding of the baby face down is a risk factor for a sudden unexpected death, and the finding of a previous upper respiratory condition is another risk factor,” she said.

When informed Ms Butler had been smoking up to 10 cones of marijuana a day in the lead up to her son’s death, Dr Vuletic said that could have formed another risk factor.

Before giving her findings, Ms Kennedy took a moment to address Mr Crichton and Ms Butler. “I extend my sincere condolences to you, and I want you to understand the purpose of this is to give a voice to someone who did not have one, but had all the rights to one,” Ms Kennedy said. “But, if one person becomes aware of this, if one person can change practice or think twice, then that is a positive thing, and that’s what Archer can give to the world.”

While Ms Kennedy did not find that Mr Crichton put his baby face-down on the couch, she said she could not accept that Archer rolled over of his own accord. 

“Archer was so little, only eight-weeks-old, and unable to roll over from his back to his stomach,” Ms Kennedy said. “Leaving him on the lounge for hours by himself increased his risk, especially while he was recovering from a respiratory infection.” 

Ms Kennedy ultimately made no official recommendations, but said she hoped the case would serve as a reminder to other parents to not leave children in unsafe sleeping environments.