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Inquest into motorbike girl

An Adelaide coroner will investigate the death of a four-year-old girl who suffered massive injuries after repeatedly crashing a motorbike she was forced to ride.

State Coroner Mark Johns noted that a number of notifications were made to Families SA in respect to Chloe Valentine before she died in January 2012.

The girl’s mother, Ashlee Polkinghorne, 22, and her then-partner, Benjamin McPartland, are in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter through criminal neglect.

Chloe died after being forced to ride a motorbike that repeatedly crashed over a three-day period in her Adelaide backyard.

Polkinghorne and McPartland waited more than eight hours before calling an ambulance after Chloe eventually became unconscious.

In the Adelaide Coroners Court on Thursday, Mr Johns said the inquest would begin on September 22.

He said he would “work methodically through each and every one of those notifications” made to Families SA about Chloe.

Polkinghorne was jailed for at least four years and nine months, while McPartland received four years and two months.

The Director of Public Prosecutions sought to have the sentences increased, contending they were manifestly inadequate.

But the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the application in July, concluding it was far from established that the sentencing judge gave inadequate weight to matters such as the need for personal and public deterrence.

McPartland received a maximum term of seven years, while Polkinghorne received eight years.

The coroner will hold a directions hearings on September 4.

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