HE carried four-year-old Bailey's coffin, every bit the grieving step-father. But last week in the Supreme Court, Nathan William Forrest, 22, was all smiles - flashing his family a wink and a thumbs-up after Justice Elizabeth Fullerton jailed him for a minimum of just six years for Bailey's manslaughter.

Ms Chapman yesterday spoke of her grandson Bailey as an "affectionate, sweet boy" with a "cheeky grin".

"He loved watching cartoons and TV. His favourite show was Thomas the Tank Engine.

"He was just a really sweet boy. He was a beautiful, beautiful kid," she said.

The grandparents' fight to get DOCS to intervene was revealed on 2GB, with Mr Chapman saying they would ring three or four times a week to warn about Bailey's abuse at the hands of an "angry and aggressive man".

"They didn't want to know us," Mr Chapman said.

"DOCS said he had to go back ... they sent him back there. He suffered head injuries and a week later he was dead."

Their concern and calls for help were echoed by Chris Campbell, who had been in a relationship with Ms Constable and was Bailey's step-father for most of his short life, and his mother Sandra Campbell.

After Ms Constable began seeing Forrest, Ms Campbell said: "My son kept saying: 'I can't help Bailey, what can I do about Bailey?' He tried to adopt Bailey but we had no legal rights."

A post-mortem found Bailey died of multiple injuries, his body bruised all over with old and new injuries.

His forehead, cheeks, the back of his head were bruised. There were old cuts across his nose, black eyes, injuries to his buttocks from being belted for "some unspecified wrong".

In the weeks before his death on April 1, 2011, Bailey told his grandparents Forrest hurt him and held him down in the bath.

On the last day of Bailey's life, Forrest had been injecting methamphetamine and was, in the words of Bailey's mother, "like a ticking time bomb".

When Bailey wet his bed, Forrest put him in the bath.

From the loungeroom, Ms Constable heard Forrest yell out: "Stop it, Bailey, stop it."

The shouts were accompanied with loud bangs.

Justice Fullerton said Ms Constable "did not ask what had happened as she feared being assaulted. As Bailey walked towards her he fell to his knees. She picked him up, dried him and dressed him for bed."

Forrest later volunteered to check on Bailey and came back saying he was dead.

"There is no remorse there whatsoever. Nathan carried the coffin at Bailey's funeral. He just laughed in our face," Ms Campbell said.

Last week Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward condemned the work of DOCS in this case, saying she had inherited a department plagued by communication problems, badly organised, badly run and had failed to work effectively with Bailey's family.

"I apologise to the grandparents and the family for an absolutely needless tragedy," Ms Goward said.

The family, who are working with the Homicide Victims Support Group to prepare a submission for Attorney-General Greg Smith to ask that manslaughter be put on the child offence register, said they hoped DOCS would change the way it worked.

With time served Forrest, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, will be eligible for parole in May 2017. A spokeswoman for Mr Smith said he had asked the DPP to review the case with a view to lodging an appeal.

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