Tammy Waller dodges jail for threatening to gas her 17-month-old daughter to death

A drugged-up mother sent her ex-partner horrific messages about “gas tasting good” and threatening to “light up” their 17-month-old daughter. She then turned on the gas.

Disturbing messages sent by a woman to her ex-partner as she threatened to kill her young child in a “gassed-out suicide” have been read to a court.

Luckily, Tammy Elizabeth Waller’s “irrational act of desperation” was interrupted by her neighbour who intervened after smelling gas.

Supplied Editorial Tammy Waller dodged jail for threatening to kill her daughter. Photo: Facebook

Adelaide District Court heard Waller, 44, sent her ex-partner a series of messages on August 14, 2020, threatening to kill their 17-month-old daughter.

“The messages were quite explicit, for example: ‘Goodbye, just remember that I love you and you drove me to this, kill all three of us’,” Judge Joana Fuller said during sentencing.

Waller also wrote: “Every gas knob is on high, I’ll light us up soon, KA BOOM. You think I’m joking, well, I’m not, gas tastes good. Try me Steve, we are gone, we are dead and be nothing but bodies in a bag”.

The court heard Waller also sent her neighbour a message saying: “Can you send Steve a message and tell him to watch the news? Gassed-out suicide, he knows who it is”.

Waller’s neighbour messaged her back saying she could smell gas and asked her to turn it off.

“She turned off the gas at the meter. She tried to get into your house but you would not let her in,” Judge Fuller said.

Police arrived and Waller told them she would never risk hurting her daughter, describing her “as the rainbow to her cloudy day”.

The Hackham West mother-of-five pleaded guilty to threatening life.

“You said that your behaviour had been a cry for help to get your ex-partner’s attention,” Judge Fuller said.

“You said that the gas was on for three minutes at the most and you told police you knew it was a flammable substance.”

The court heard Waller was distressed on the day of the offending because her 13-year-old daughter had been hospitalised and she didn’t want to take the victim, her younger daughter, because of Covid-19 risks.

“Your ex-partner ignored your requests of him to look after his daughter so you could go to the hospital,” Judge Fuller said.

“Your offending was not driven by a desire to retaliate or exact revenge or to terrify your child but was an impulsive, irrational act of desperation.”

Judge Fuller said she accepted Waller’s account that the gas wasn’t on long enough to risk any harm to her daughter.

The court heard Waller, who gave birth to another baby in April, had a drug problem but was undertaking rehabilitation.

Judge Fuller sentenced Waller to two years and six months, with a non-parole period of one year and five months.

“The threat was not an idle threat, but one which you did action, albeit briefly, by turning on the gas for a short period while you were home with your young child,” Judge Fuller said.

Due to Waller’s remorse and rehabilitation efforts, the sentence was suspended on a $100, two-and-half-year good-behaviour bond, with supervision for two years.

“I hope in time you spend more time with your children and that you do eventually get to a position where you can be a mother to them again,” Judge Fuller said.