Mother charged with manslaughter of 7-month-old granted bail

A 21-year-old Cherbourg woman who was charged with manslaughter following the death of her seven month old baby has walked free from court on bail.

21-year-old Lavinia Alison Murray has been granted bail. Photo/File

Bail has been granted for a 21-year-old Cherbourg woman who was charged with manslaughter following the death of her seven month old baby on February 5.

Lavinia Alison Murray appeared before the Kingaroy Magistrates Court today February 12.

At around 9.30am on February 5, emergency services were called to a residence where CPR had already commenced on the baby girl after she was found unresponsive.

The baby girl was transported to hospital where she died a short time later.

During the application, no further details of the events leading to the child's death were revealed, however Murray's defence lawyer described the incident as "tragic circumstances, lack of intention obviously".

Police prosecutor senior sergeant Barry Stevens opposed bail.

"The defendant is not in a show cause situation," he said.

"In summary your honour, she is 21-years-old, she is unemployed, she is an Indigenous lady who resides locally, she has two other children aged four and one.

"The other concern we have is for retribution and the nature and seriousness of the offence."

Murray was represented by Alan Korobacz who said she has two young children in her care and the support of her family.

"Very importantly your honour, she has much family support, you can see behind me uncles, mothers, fathers, aunties and they all wish to support her if she is granted bail because obviously she has gone and suffered a tragedy and also they want to help her with the other two children and they have all surrounded her with support," Mr Korobacz said.

"It's my submission she has no history and as I said, long term where this goes, whether it's completed by way of plea or otherwise, it's my submission that the court would take into account the tragic circumstances, the lack of intention obviously and the youth of the person.

"I submit an actual jail sentence would be unjust and therefore I ask that she be granted bail."

Magistrate Andrew Sinclair said the defendant was not in a show cause situation.

"Under the bail act there is a prima facie presumption of innocence and that any person charged with a criminal offence, how serious, will receive bail unless there is an unacceptable risk that if they were released on bail they would either fail to appear in entering custody, that they would commit further offences or endanger other people or witnesses, or they should remain in custody for their own protection," Magistrate Sinclair said.

"Considering each of those, the defendant has no previous history and I see no danger that she would fail to appear or surrender into custody, she has clear strong family contact and her life is in this area.

"I've considered of whether there is risk if released on bail to commit further offences and I consider that risk to be very low given the fact that she has at this stage of her life got no previous history and again she is well supported by members of the community that have chosen to attend today.

"For the purpose of assessing any risk given the nature of how this incident seems to of unfolded, I don't perceive there be a risk to either of her children, which would make it unacceptable given the matters that have been put in place to assist the defendant."

Murray was granted bail and the case was adjourned for mention on May 4 at Murgon Magistrates Court.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

If you're reading this that means you're already a subscriber to this website, but it also means you get FREE and UNLIMITED access to the Courier Mail for the latest National, State, Rugby League, AFL and Entertainment news plus more.
If you haven't already - activate your complimentary Courier Mail subscription by following the below steps...
1. Go to My Profile and log in
2. Go to My Rewards

3. Click the activate now button or copy activation hyperlink

4. Sign up on The Courier-Mail website - we recommend you use the same email address and password as what you've set up for our website to avoid confusion.

This same login will also work on other News sites including the Toowoomba Chronicle, Melbourne's Herald Sun and Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

Originally published as