Mother on bail for cruelty to children charge, granted bail in Townsville Magistrates Court

A woman who has been charged with cruelty to children will be released from custody and allowed to live with the alleged victim child.

Mother on bail for cruelty to children charge, granted bail in Townsville Magistrates Court Picture: istock

A woman who was charged with cruelty to children has been granted bail and will be allowed to return living with the alleged child victim.

The woman, who can’t be named to protect the child’s identity, had her charges presented in Townsville Magistrates Court on Monday morning where her lawyer made an application for bail.

She was charged with cruelty to children under 16 last year and granted watch house bail and has since been charged with robbery.

No pleas have been entered.

Her lawyer Nico Rump said the cruelty to children charge was “far more serious” than the alleged robbery.

“But you will note the child was assessed and given a clean bill of health, the child was taken to hospital on a number of occasions because police were concerned,” he said.

“The medical professionals were of the view that the child was completely fine.”

He said the proposed bail address for the woman was also where the alleged victim child lived.

“If she were to be granted bail obviously there would be further concerns about the child however she will live there in the company of her mother and be supervised,” Mr Rump said.

“In relation to the father of the child, there’s a DVO in place – it’s got fairly strict conditions but does allow for contact with the child.”

Police prosecutor Nathan Smith opposed the bail and said it was “not appropriate” for the woman to live at the address when she has been charged with cruelty in relation to that child.

“(She) is an unacceptable risk of committing further offences,” Mr Smith said.

“She was granted bail in June last year for the cruelty charge and almost immediately committed a further contravention of domestic violence and stealing charges.

“She spent a month in custody for not complying with bail, not complying with court orders and then committing the robbery charge. It’s an escalation of offending.”

Magistrate Susan Warrington, when deciding if the woman should be granted bail, acknowledged that the woman’s charge of cruelty against children would take time to finalise as it will be indicted to the District Court.

“I am satisfied that not coming to Townsville will mitigate the risk, staying at the residential address provided by her mother which is deemed a suitable address,” she said.

“As far as child safety concerns, that is a matter for Child Safety that they will have to assess, I’m not going to get involved in that assessment process because I don’t have enough evidence before me to do that,” Her Honour said.

She granted the woman bail and ordered her to report to police weekly and remain outside of Townsville where the alleged robbery occurred.

Her charges were adjourned to July 15.

Originally published as Mother on bail for cruelty to children charge, granted bail in Townsville Magistrates Court