Complete strangers at a Perth shopping centre were so shocked by the sight of a toddler distressed and in pain that they intervened to get her help.
Perth District Court on Thursday heard details of the events that led to the young girl being placed into foster care after her heroin-addict mother failed to get her simple medical treatment, resulting in chronic pain and a 13-day hospital stay.
A 34-year-old woman has avoided jail after failing to get her daughter medical treatment for ear infections.Credit: Facebook
The mother, now 34, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her daughter, was arrested and charged with reckless conduct that may have resulted in a child suffering after passers-by saw her pushing her daughter around an IGA in Mount Hawthorn in so much pain that they called police.
Body worn camera footage of the officers’ intervention was described by Judge David Maclean as “disturbing” and the mother’s conduct “deplorable”.
During her sentencing on Thursday, the court was told the woman, who has a bachelor’s degree in science and has worked as a professional singer, was using 1.5 “points” of heroin a day while she was pregnant in 2016 and 2017.
The girl was taken into foster care following the incident.Credit: Facebook
She fled a domestic violence relationship in Melbourne and returned to Perth, where her daughter was born with neonatal abstinence syndrome and other issues related to a chromosome condition.
When she was three months old, the child was referred to specialist paediatrician and a neurology clinic, but the mother repeatedly failed to attend appointments.
“She sourced drugs above the needs of the child,” prosecutors told the court.
The court was told the child later developed ear infections that were not treated, and a simple grommet operation was never organised, leading to the girl becoming profoundly deaf and unable to communicate because she could not hear.
The girl also pulled her hair out and scratched herself until she bled due to the pain. Instead of getting her daughter the medical assistance she needed, the woman shaved off all her hair.
In June 2020, she was shopping with the girl when members of the public noticed how distressed the child was.
“Her trauma was so obvious and so graphic that members of the public called the police, and it is to their credit that they acted so sympathetically towards her,” Maclean said.
“It was so disturbing that people intervened with someone else’s child as far as parenting goes, which no one ever wants to do.”
The girl was taken to hospital where she was admitted for 13 days and then taken into foster care.
The court was told the woman, who worked for an insurance company and had always maintained employment, continued to struggle with drug addiction leading to a life of “chaos”.
Prosecutors said the child’s hearing was restored, and she made a full recovery from the ear infections after she was treated in hospital.
She was returned to her mother’s care, but a year and a half later was again brought under the care of the Department of Communities after she was found with cuts on her fingers and ankle that had become infected and were not treated.
The woman’s lawyer told the court she loved her daughter but struggled to cope with parenting a child with high needs.
A sentencing hearing earlier this year was also adjourned, the court was told, because the woman suffered a pulmonary embolism and was in a coma for three months.
Her lawyer said the experience had made her reevaluate her lifestyle.
Despite the charge holding a maximum penalty of 10 year in prison, the woman was given a 15-month intensive supervision order with stringent regulations including counselling and urinalysis tests.
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