A grieving mum who lost her twin girls in a blaze sparked by an unattended candle has renewed calls for an coronial inquest as she shared new harrowing details about the tragedy.
It’s been 18 months since Akira Garton’s four-year-old daughters Ophelia and Tarrow died at a northern NSW commune while in the care of their father.
The girls were sleeping in a bedroom at a Goonengerry commune near Byron Bay in November, 2021 when a painting and candle burning just metres away fell onto a piano.
The girls were engulfed by the toxic fumes and choked to death as their father James Wright sat 50m away with others at a bonfire party outside, unaware of the unfolding tragedy until he went to check on them.
Ms Garton says several questions remain, despite Coroner Karen Stafford declaring earlier this year that the twins’ death was an accident.
Ms Garton woke up on her 35th birthday being smothered with hugs and kisses from Ophelia, Tarrow and their seven-year-old sister before dropping the girls off at her estranged partner’s home the next day.
The next time she saw the twins was in a morgue at Tweed Heads Hospital, the place where they were born premature four years earlier.
Akira Garton has demanded more answered into the deaths of her twins Ophelia and Tarrow
‘It was f***ed because this was where I birthed them,’ Ms Garton told The Project.
‘That drive, we’re not going into the maternity unit, we are going into the f****** morgue.
‘And I couldn’t touch them because they were behind the glass screen. And that really hurt me. I couldn’t even be with them.
‘I just screamed and I screamed so loud.’
It was later discovered the smoke alarm in the bedroom where the girls slept had been disabled with the battery removed.
Ms Garton says it’s one of several unanswered questions surrounding her twins’ deaths.
‘I don’t think they (police) investigated it thoroughly enough at all,’ she said.
Coroner Karen Stafford ruled in January that she was satisfied there were no suspicious circumstances and didn’t believe an inquest was required.
‘Whilst leaving a naked flame in a room with a child, no adult supervision and no effective smoke alarm are matters of safety, there is no wider issue of public safety,’ the coroner ruled.
Ophelia and Tarrow choked to death as they slept after a burning candle fell onto a piano
The coroner’s decision devastated Ms Garton.
Ophelia and Tarrow died while staying with their father and his new girlfriend
‘I did call them and just went for it,’ she said.
‘I demanded, ‘what if this was your children, would you be happy for them to be left alone?’
‘Would you be happy for this to happen?
‘Why are you not answering the questions. No-one could give me an answer.’
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Ms Garton remembered little Ophelia as a very caring soul and the glue that kept the family together.
Her younger twin Tarrow was more fragile and needed more protection.
Of her last day spent with Ophelia and Tarrow, Ms Garton recalled: ‘I felt hope that I hadn’t felt for a long time. They were so happy, cackling their little heads off.’
Ms Garton fled to Sydney following the twins’ deaths and recently returned to the Byron Bay hinterland for the first time since the tragedy.
‘So this is where it happened, it was in a cabin called the Love Shack just down the road here,’ she said.
‘I never thought I would be standing here having to recount a story where two people don’t exist any more.’
Ms Garton hopes sharing her heartbreaking story will serve as a warning to other parents.
‘There’s some real basics to parenting and living,’ she said.
‘You don’t leave an open flame with children unattended. It’s the 101s.’
Akira Garton broke down in a TV interview as she recalled seeing her twins’ bodies in a morgue where they were born four years earlier
Ms Garton remembered little Ophelia as a very caring soul and the glue that kept the family together. Her younger twin Tarrow was more fragile and needed more protection
Ms Garton says her twins (pictured as babies) deserve an inquest into their deaths
Ms Garton said her relationship with the twins’ father, political activist James Wright, is now very minimal and ‘strained’.
In a statement to The Project, Mr Wright said he believes the coroner undertook a thorough and impartial investigation.
He remains devastated and heartbroken over the tragedy.
‘I share the overwhelming and relentless grief with Akira and our families. My focus now is on our precious eldest daughter, finding a way to rebuild our lives and learning to somehow live each day without our darling twins,’ Mr Wright’s statement read.
‘NSW Coroner Karen Stafford undertook a thorough and impartial investigation into their heartbreaking deaths, which included expert input from the police and medical professionals.
‘We are forever grateful for the immense ongoing support from our community, as well as from the first responders, who were extremely professional and showed enormous empathy and compassion.’
Ms Garton has set up an online petition calling for an inquest into her twins’ deaths which has attracted 16,000 signatures in four weeks.
‘I have stayed silent for exactly 18 months out of respect for the police investigation, but now I am calling on the NSW Attorney General to intervene so that there is a thorough and transparent inquest into the fire,’ the petition states.
‘More can be done to prevent future tragedies, in the hills around Byron Bay there is an entrenched culture of people burning candles and incense, disabling or neglecting to install smoke detectors.
‘Almost a year and a half after my children died, I feel like the system would prefer to act as if my children did not exist.
‘An inquest is the absolute minimum my two beautiful little girls deserve.’
Ms Garton has set up an online petition calling for an inquest into her twins’ deaths which has attracted 16,000 signatures in four weeks
