But Sophie's mother took matters into her own hands, advocating for her daughter and requesting Sophie's file from WorkSafe under the Official Information Act in March 2013.
A request under the Official Information Act has to be answered in 20 working days although an extension can be requested.
When Ms McCauley received a "smaller than expected file" three months later, she said "nothing seemed right".
She took her concerns to the Ombudsman and brought Michael Nepia on board as her lawyer. They sought a review of the whole investigation. A year later, in July 2014, they received Sophie's complete file, with WorkSafe admitting the information had been "withheld in error".
The response came with a two-page apology after the review found the investigation was not of the standard that was expected at the time.
A spokesperson told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend the investigation "did not adequately examine the health and safety legal responsibilities of the climbing centre and contained inconsistent conclusions as to culpability".
"We also apologised for the additional stress that must have been placed on the McCauley family as the investigation report appears to have unfairly attributed blame for the accident to Sophie.
"There was no evidence that Sophie was to blame for the accident." In the letter to Ms McCauley last year, WorkSafe offered $1600 compensation to cover legal fees and promised a personal apology from a chief investigator.
Yesterday that promise was fulfilled.
"This meeting has been the culmination of three years of advocacy and has brought positive closure to what's been a very difficult period," Ms McCauley said yesterday.
"I think their apology was genuine and sincere. It's been incredibly difficult and stressful. It's been exhausting."
Ms McCauley appreciated WorkSafe coming to Tauranga to apologise in person and considered the three-year crusade closed.
Despite the review, any prosecution action by WorkSafe had to be made within six months of the organisation being alerted of the incident so they now had no ability to lay charges.
However, the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 makes provision for private litigants to seek an extension of time to file a charging document in certain circumstances.
Mr Nepia and Ms McCauley both said that window had closed for them. "Probably a year ago it was frustrating but now I don't want to put Sophie through that. I resigned [myself] to the fact a while back," she said.
"We're now looking to salvage a couple of positives out of it."
WorkSafe outlined to Ms McCauley all the changes made to how investigations were carried out since WorkSafe was established, including a dedicated team of inspectors focused purely on investigations, increased oversight by their managers, increased legal support and a new training regime.
Within a week of Sophie's accident in 2012 and as a direct result of it, The Rock House made two changes to their safety procedures, manager Sue Hair told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
Padded mats were put under the climbing walls and a double-carabiner system was introduced, instead of using just one.
"We changed some things straight away but since then there's been the ASGs [Activity Safety Guidelines] and every gym has to comply with those ... they're classed as guidelines but you'd be a fool not to."
Ms Hair said a letter was sent to the McCauley family after the incident to apologise but The Rock House was advised not to do anything else.
