Charlie’s mum speaks out for the first time: ‘I’m not perfect’

The shattered mother of six-year-old Charlie has spoken exclusively to The Advertiser, saying she desperately loved her girl – and had pleaded for more help from authorities.

Crystal Nowland’s heart is broken.

Six days after frantically performing CPR on her six-year-old daughter Charlie, the mother’s head is in her hands and tears are streaming down her face.

She remembers her daughter as a “cheeky” and “headstrong” little girl.

Sobbing, she says she misses “everything about” Charlie, who made her family laugh with her pranks, including replacing hair conditioner with superglue at the family’s Munno Para home.

Ms Nowland, who is speaking for the first time since the death of her six-year-old daughter at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in the early hours of Friday, said she feels “lost”.

She has been at the centre of a police investigation into suspected neglect after Charlie’s cause of death was found to be malnutrition.

While remembering her beloved daughter, Ms Nowland also wants people to know she did her best as a mother and had pleaded for extra help from the department of child protection.

“I’m not a perfect mum, but I’m not the mum they’ve made me out to be.

“I’m not a perfect mum and I might do things arse to front, back to front, but I fed them all the time.

“Every payday – Thursday morning – at 7.30 I’d be at Foodland [to shop].”

Crystal Nowland, mother of deceased six year old girl Charlie. Picture: Tom Huntley

Ms Nowland said she had only learnt that Charlie had coeliac disease, a disorder triggered by gluten which affects the small intestine and can lead to malnourishment, after her daughter died.

Ms Nowland said she spoke with the Coroner on Monday who told her Charlie had a hereditary heart disease which affected blood flow to the organ.

They told her that there was nothing she could have done to save Charlie.

Ms Nowland told The Advertiser of her harrowing attempts to save her child who “just stopped breathing” in the early hours of Friday morning.

She and close friend Meegan Cox, who sat beside Ms Nowland yesterday as she recounted her heartbreak to The Advertiser, both performed CPR on Charlie and attempted to clear her airways.

“I miss her just nagging,” Ms Nowland said.

“I miss her so much.

“She was so headstrong.”

She said she was so close to her youngest daughter that the girl “couldn’t leave her side”.

Ms Nowland said in the weeks before her death Charlie showed no signs of illness and that she always had a healthy appetite.

“She loved her mashed potatoes,” she said.

Charlie is remembered as cheeky and headstrong.

Charlie posing as an angel. Pictures: Supplied

Ms Nowland denied that neglect led to Charlie’s death.

“I fed them (her children) all the time,” she said.

Ms Cox said her friend’s home was like a supermarket and that Charlie never went without food.

Despite the heartbreak of the past week, Ms Nowland remembered her daughter’s “cheeky smile” above all else.

The 46-year-old was stabbed in the neck in front of Charlie by her partner John and while he is in prison, she is battling as a single mother.

Ms Nowland remembered her daughter playing pranks on her five siblings.

The girl was copying a TikTok video when she pulled her superglue prank.

“It took me ages to get it out,” she said with a chuckle.

Neighbours and friends rallied around Ms Nowland this week, saying the blame for Charlie’s death should be placed on the Child Protection Department.

“Enough is enough,” one neighbour said on Wednesday.

Like them, Ms Nowland believes she was let down by the system.

She told The Advertiser she had repeatedly asked for more support after she was assaulted by her partner John but visits from wellbeing workers did not increase.

Crystal, centre, has received support from her friends Meegan Cox and niece Reannett Bini. Picture: Tom Huntley

She asked to be enrolled in single parenting courses following her partner’s arrest but this did not happen.

“I never got no help since I was stabbed,” she said.

“I had to train my leg … to walk again.

“I couldn’t even work out … how to cook rice in the rice cooker and I started having seizures. I couldn’t even remember how to drive a car.”

Despite that, she said she was not given extra departmental support.

Ms Nowland said the department had visited Charlie two days before her death.

“They see Charlie all the time,” she said.

“They were talking to Charlie, they could see Charlie. Why didn’t they say something? If they reckoned there were any concerns why didn’t they say something or take her?”

“If I was such a bad mum why didn’t they do anything?”

Ms Nowland said that Charlie loved her father dearly and that he was “a mess”.

“She loved her dancing and her TikToks,” she said.

“I miss her little jokes, just the little silly things.

“Oh my god, watching Raising Hope over and over again”.

Ms Nowland was so close to her youngest daughter that she could rarely leave her side – even to shower.

Ms Nowland said since her partner was arrested, her family had chosen to sleep in the lounge room together because of their strong bond.

She denied that Charlie had slept on a bench and said it was her own special space where she ate away from the “big kids” and did arts and crafts.

Ms Nowland alleged that ambulance officers had taken almost an hour to respond. 

SA Ambulance denied the claim that the ambulance took so long to respond, calling it “false”.

A spokesman said, “Claims of a delay are incorrect. Paramedics arrived on scene to this distressing case within our eight minute target”.

Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said she understood the frustration about Charlie’s case.

“I am going to do everything in my power to respond to that desire for change,” she said.