Charges laid over baby boy’s campsite death

A man has been charged with manslaughter after a baby boy drowned at a popular rest stop north-west of Brisbane.

The 42-year-old man was arrested days after the seven-month-old boy was discovered by his mother in the rest area’s lake, in Gympie, about two hours north of Brisbane.

The man was known to the child, police said.

The boy’s family was passing through on their way back to far north Queensland and camped at Gympie’s Chatsworth Park about 50 metres from the water’s edge on Friday night, police said.

The baby’s mother called emergency services to the campsite after she found her child unresponsive in the lake on Saturday morning.

People performed CPR on the baby before he was rushed to hospital, but the infant was declared dead later that night.

The area near where the baby died. Credit: Win TV

Police on Monday said the mother had not been able to explain how the child had ended up in the water.

“The mother of the child did retrieve this child from the water. It’s been a very traumatic experience for her clearly,” Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield told reporters.

“The family were passing through – they were just staying there overnight and, tragically, this incident has happened the following morning.”

A baby boy was found unresponsive in a lake in Chatsworth Park in Gympie on Saturday morning.Credit: Google Maps

Homicide detectives were called in and the 42-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, about 200 kilometres south of the campsite in Bundamba, Ipswich.

The man has been charged with domestic violence-related manslaughter and is due to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Police are yet to provide details of the moments before the baby’s death.

with AAP

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