Weymouth toddler who died of head injuries used to play on red and blue slide in front yard

A toddler who died overnight at Starship Hospital was known to neighbours, who would sometimes hear her playing on her miniature red and blue plastic slide in the front garden of her parents' rental home as her mother sat quietly nearby.

"They seemed happy. You wouldn't think all that was going on," said one neighbour who asked not to be identified by name, referring to news that spread quickly through the Weymouth residential street that police have suggested the girl's injuries were "non-accidental" and "suspicious".

The neighbour said he and his wife had brought over cupcakes when the young family moved in roughly a year ago.

Police forensics at the Weymouth house. Photo / Craig Kapitan

"They had a couple of kids, they answered the door. The guy goes, 'Oh, thank you very much'."

While he doesn't know the couple well, the neighbour said he'd noticed how much they didn't stick out.

A plastic slide that neighbours said the child played on. Photo / Craig Kapitan

"They're a young couple," he explained. "For people who are young, you wouldn't even think they were there — that's how quiet they were."

But another person in the neighbourhood, who also asked not to be named, there was often shouting coming from the house.

"They were fighting and they'd come out on the street and start shouting at each other.

"There were parties and everything else."

Another neighbour said she would occasionally hear gatherings over the fence, but it seemed to be people acting jolly during holidays — nothing that was of concern to her.

She also sometimes hears children over the fence. As a mother of young children herself, it didn't stick out as unusual.

Police outside the house. Photo / Craig Kapitan

That included Sunday, she said.

"We were out there the whole of yesterday," she said of her own yard. "There was nothing going on. We didn't hear anything unusual."

Monday, however, was a different story as police in full PPE canvassed the neighbourhood and stood in a group under a crime scene tent erected in the family's front yard — only metres away from the girl's little plastic slide.

The police Eagle helicopter circled overhead.

"It's very sad for our street," said another mother in the neighbourhood who didn't know the girl or her parents. "Very sad for our community."

Detective Inspector Warrick Adkin said the child was taken to hospital yesterday evening from the Weymouth address.

"The child's injuries are believed to be non-accidental and at this stage the death is being treated as suspicious," Adkin said earlier today.

"A post-mortem is taking place this morning."

A scene examination would be taking place at the address today and officers were speaking to those occupants as part of their inquiries.

The occupants at the address were currently self-isolating, he said.

The Ministry of Health declined to elaborate on if the occupants have Covid-19 or are instead close contacts of a case.