Mum of little girls who ate a weed cookie speaks out after ex-partner faces Brisbane Supreme Court

The mum of two little girls who ate a weed cookie at their dad’s house says it was “unjust” he was fined only $400 over the incident during which one girl begged to come home, feeling like she was “going to die”.

The mum of two little girls who ate a weed cookie while in their dad’s care says it was “pathetic and unjust” that he escaped conviction and was fined just $400 over the incident.

The girl’s father came before the Brisbane Supreme Court in February this year and pleaded guilty to possessing a dangerous drug.

The court heard the girls, then aged 6 and 2, were having a sleepover at his Crestmead house on January 18, 2020, when they “found” a part of a weed cookie in their dad’s fridge while he was outside.

The two-year-old girl took a small bite of the cookie before the six-year-old ate the rest of it.

When he came back inside the father found the girl finishing the cookie and said he could have stopped her from eating the rest of it but did not want to panic her or make her think she did anything wrong.

He said the girl was “stoned” and she became moody with red, glassy eyes, the court heard.

The 34-year-old man was fined $400 and no conviction was recorded.

Now, the girls’ mother has shared her side of the story and said she felt that the man had “gotten off lightly” after “drugging his children”.

“A $400 fine for drugging his children is pathetic, I know he has traffic offences that have cost him more,” she said.

“But even worse than the pathetic sentence is that no conviction was recorded, that is the main thing my girls and I wanted, for there to be a record of what he had done, for him not to be able to lie about it. There is no justice in that.”

The mum, who cannot be named to protect the girls’ identities, said on the night of the incident she received a call from the girls’ father, telling her their eldest was acting “giggle and silly but also paranoid and upset”.

Thinking she was having an anxiety attack, the mum told their dad to turn off the TV and any devices and get her to lay down and comfort her.

“But, during the call she said to me ‘Mummy, I feel like I’m going to die, I want to come home,” the mum said.

It was then that she thought her daughter’s behaviour didn’t sound like an anxiety attack and said she told the girls’ father to call an ambulance, but he said she was starting to “come good” and that he would watch her.

“I asked him if she could have got some of his cannabis cookie as I knew he had them in the fridge,” she said, adding that she had previously told him to get rid of the cookies as it could be dangerous when the girls visited.

“But on that phone call I questioned it, he said he didn’t think she had any but she was acting a bit like someone who was ‘stoned’.

“He also sent me a photo with her with red, glassy eyes but at that stage he still tried to say he didn’t believe she had any of the cannabis cookies but it was possible.”

The girls went back to her house the next day and told her that ‘Dad had given them one of the bad cookies’, the mum said.

A man faced court earlier this year after his two daughters ate a drug-laced cookie while in his care. Picture: File

“He told me that he thinks they could have had some but at that stage he said he didn’t give it to them and they must have helped themselves to it.

“My eldest daughter felt weird and was panicking that she would need to go to hospital and need needles, and that she felt like she was going to die,” she said.

The mum said her eldest daughter told her she felt like her “brain was broken.”

She took the girls to the doctor the following day, then to the hospital and police station where she reported the incident, spoke to child protection officers and the girls gave hair samples for drug tests.

The mum later recorded a phone call with the father, who “beat around the bush” and then claimed he got the weed cookie mixed up with an Anzac biscuit, which she did not believe.

She said that originally the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had told her the man was charged with two counts of aggravated supply of dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years, which was confirmed on a court document before the man’s sentence.

“They informed me that they might drop it to possession with aggravated circumstances to avoid my eldest having to testify, but I spoke to her about it and she made the choice that she wanted to testify, she wanted the truth to be known.

“I told the DPP that my daughter wanted to testify but they told me that the decision ultimately lies with their office. The charges were dropped to simply possession.”

She said it felt “unjust.”

“My girls and I have waited for two years for justice.

“My girls should have learned from this that when someone does something harmful to someone else, they will face consequences and the victim will be protected.

“Instead they have learned that money gets people out of trouble and children won’t be believed over an adult even when it’s true.”