A man accused of abandoning three children to perish in a house fire will never be brought to trial.
Matthew McAuliffe, 24, was alleged to have left siblings Izabel, 5, Lyvia, 2, and their brother Kalais, 3, to their fate while he and their mother went to retrieve a car door.
McAuliffe faced charges of negligent manslaughter alongside the children’s mother, Shania Lee, and was scheduled to appear in court on Friday. However, he was absent.
During proceedings at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, prosecutors sought to drop all charges against him.
Magistrate Belinda Wallington was informed of McAuliffe’s death, as reported by NCA Newswire. The circumstances around his death do not appear to be suspicious.
It is understood his death is not being treated as suspicious.
Both he and Lee, 25, of Tarneit in Melbourne’s west, were accused of ignoring the children’s screams while watching the house on CCTV as they drove away.
The children were pulled unconscious from the rear of a property in Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west after neighbours raised the alarm on September 8 last year.
Matthew McAuliffe, 24, will not face justice over allegations he left children in his care to burn to death
Firefighters rescued the children, one by one, before all three were taken to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.
Izabel and Lyvia tragically died in hospital, while Kalais survived after being placed in an induced coma. Another child was not home.
Lee was granted bail to live with her mother in Moama, on the NSW-Victoria border, but McAuliffe had stayed behind bars until October due to his shocking criminal history.
He was bailed on October 7 to live with his mother and grandfather in the regional Victorian town of Maryborough.
In applying for bail, the court heard McAuliffe had been charged 425 times since he was 13, with 101 warrants for his arrest issued over his short life, amounting to 31 pages of previous criminal history.
He had only been released from jail a little more than two months before the fire, moving into the house with Lee and her children a week before the blaze.
In opposing bail, Detective Senior Constable Christopher Mitchell told the court McAuliffe had a ‘propensity for violence’ and last year was arrested just two days after his release from jail.
In that incident, McAuliffe was found with a stolen car which contained a balaclava, shotgun shells and a homemade ‘slam gun’.
The tragic house fire where two children were killed
In a prison call captured on February 20, McAuliffe accused Lee of watching the cameras on the night of the incident and hearing screaming.
‘Lee admits that she watched the cameras at the last minute and informed her mother, Lynn Hawkett,’ Senior Constable Mitchell said.
‘Lee states, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing,” and asks whether McAuliffe will use it against her.
‘Investigators believe that the referred screaming is in relation to the children during the fire. Investigators also believe that McAuliffe and Lee are discussing viewing the footage using a phone application on Lee’s mobile.’
In granting bail, Magistrate Phillip Goldberg deemed strict bail conditions would alleviate any risk McAuliffe posed to the community while awaiting his next court appearance in January.
Crown prosecutor Emily Sheales had pleaded with Magistrate Goldberg to keep McAuliffe behind bars.
‘Through the prison calls the accused says to his co-accused or refers to watching the camera on the night of the incident and hearing screaming and then there being a discussion about that,’ she said.
‘It is the Crown case that shows that very shortly after leaving the premises, and the timeline that set out is within a couple of minutes.
‘The smoke alarm is going off, they’re both aware that the smoke alarm is going off and they’re both aware that there is screaming and that at that point they should have returned. They did not return. They did not call triple zero.’
Shania Lee will face justice alone
Ms Sheales said McAuliffe had breached previous bail conditions at least a dozen times in addition to failing to appear at court, breaching community corrections orders, supervision orders and family violence intervention orders.
‘It shows multiple instances of dishonesty, violent offending, access to weapons, and drug offending,’ she said.
‘So in my submission, that significant and lengthy history over a 10-year period when he is only 24 sets him apart from his co-accused.’
The court heard McAuliffe had not been on speaking terms with his former lover and had lashed out at her on the phone while in jail.
Police suspected it was likely McAuliffe who accidentally lit the fire with a discarded cigarette.
During that hearing, the court heard the children had been put to bed between 8.30-9pm that night, with McAuliffe – a smoker – heading to the bedroom before leaving and shutting the door behind him.
The court was told police were unable to determine how the fire began but believed it was most likely direct ignition on or around the bed when the former couple were still home.
The officer said it was not alleged the fire in the master bedroom was deliberately lit, but that Mr McAuliffe and Ms Lee knew there was a fire and did not take any steps to return or seek help.
Lee will return to court in January.
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