High-profile Sunshine Coast TikTok mum faces court charged with drugging her own baby

The baby was found unconscious and needed brain surgery after her influencer mum allegedly continued to give her drugs she no longer needed, just to get clicks online.

A baby girl allegedly tortured by her TikTok influencer mother for social media benefit continued to register high levels of a prescription drug despite doctors having stopped the medicine due to its unwanted side effects, a court had heard

The crown alleges that it was in fact the Sunshine Coast mother who continued administering the drug to the child and just a week ago still claimed incorrectly that her daughter had a fatal condition.

Police allege the woman’s social media was the motive for the alleged offending, accusing her of obtaining a financial benefit.

The 34-year-old, who cannot be named, is charged with five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one count each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud.

She applied for bail in Brisbane’s Magistrate Court where Deputy Chief Magistrate Stephen Courtney summarised the alleged crown case.

“(The child) is now about 18 months. (She) was diagnosed with a genetic disorder that manifested itself with benign tumours in multiple organs. She was prescribed medication, she began to suffer seizures … it was suspected that the medication that she was prescribed was triggering those seizures,” he said.

“The medication was stopped, but the defendant still had prescriptions for that medication. After the medication was stopped by the clinical practitioners, the medication was continued to be found in (the child’s) system, as well as some other non prescribed drugs,

“There’s an event at a hospital in early October of 2024, about two months after the doctors discontinued the medication, where there was suspicious conduct by (the defendant) the prosecution say. Seizures, police were involved, the prosecution case is that (the woman) made admissions to her then partner of having continued to administer the medication.”

The 34-year-old Sunshine Coast woman is charged with five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, among other charges.

During an admission at hospital police prosecutor Jack Scott alleged CCTV shows the mother fiddling with the child’s nasogastric tube and is seen with a syringe. It’s alleged she then moved the camera to avoid detection.

“The circumstantial evidence is that she’s used the opportunity, once the child is hidden under the blanket, fiddling with the nasogastric tube to use it to administer non-prescribed medications,” Mr Scott alleged on Tuesday.

“That’s supported by the fact that within 30 to 40 minutes after this incident, the child immediately is rendered totally unconscious. And the medical evidence is that that is not a symptom of any known condition the child is suffering from.”

Mr Scott said there was no dispute that the child suffered from tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and suffered seizures. However he alleged the type of seizures the child continued to have, even after the drug Carbamazepine was stopped by the child’s doctors, was not ordinarily a condition of TSC.

“The medical evidence is that that is not a symptom of TSC, that can only be a consequence of the administration of non prescribed medical substances,” he alleged

“There is really no valid explanation as to why, after being made aware of the treatment of the child that the applicant would not once, not twice, but three times attend upon a pharmacy to fill out a script for a medication which she knows is no longer used for the child, in which she knows causes the child harm.

“And she tells police, and I say this respectfully, a bald-faced lie … that she didn’t knowingly fill out those scripts.”

Mr Scott conceded it was a circumstantial case but alleged “there’s a limited group of people that could have administered that drug to the child”.

“This is a case where the only rational explanation, when you have regard to the medical report and circumstances, is that it is (the woman) and not someone else who’s administered the drugs,” he claimed.

Mr Scott alleged the woman was in possession of all five of the non-prescribed medicines allegedly administered to the child.

“Her actions have created serious extra symptoms … on one occasion, suffering a code blue, cardiac arrest, requiring resuscitation,” he said.

“It’s then required the child to have (two) surgeries that the child would otherwise have at a later point in time.

“The second brain surgery is referred to as being particularly serious, involved and both carried with them serious risk of infection or other complications.”

Mr Scott claimed that as recently as a week ago the woman had told a forensic psychologist, hired by the defence, that her child was suffering from a fatal disease known as cerebral tuberculosis and not TCS which is “a treatable, manageable, non fatal condition.”

Mr Scott said police recognised the child would continue to have spasms or other epileptic episodes as a condition of TCS.

“What we are concerned with are purely instances where the child is rendered completely unconscious … and those have ceased following the care of the child being removed from the applicant and the ex-partner for completeness,” he alleged.

The ex-partner is not accused of any wrongdoing.

The high-profile TikTok Queensland mum was arrested on January 16. Picture: QLD Police.

Police will allege that between August 6 and October 15, last year, the woman administered several unauthorised prescription and pharmacy medicines to her daughter.

Mr Scott said during this period the child was recorded as having 18mg of Carbamazepine in her system.

“The lethal dosage for a child is 25 milligrams,” he said.

Bail was opposed primarily on the basis the woman allegedly posed a risk of endangering the safety of the child.

“The concern of the Queensland Police Service is that the only way she could justify her behaviour thus far is to re-engage with the child and to continue to create a situation where the child presents as someone suffering from a disease it otherwise isn’t,” Mr Scott alleged.

The woman’s lawyer Mathew Cuskelly cited information from Child Safety, which has the care of the child, indicating the girl continued to suffer symptoms even after she was removed from the mother’s care.

“(The) child is reported to have presented with shaking of their arms and head lasting no longer than 20 seconds at a time. However, this did occur multiple times. As such, the carers have taken her to the hospital,” Mr Cuskelly, reading an email from Child Safety, said.

Mr Cuskelly’s position was that his client was a young lady with no criminal history and while the case may appear strong with further scrutiny that may change, the court heard.

“The matter is circumstantial, very circumstantial,” he said.

He proposed bail conditions including a residential address, reporting to police and no contact with her children except supervised video calls. It was also proposed she not contact witnesses and wear an ankle monitor.

The woman’s solicitor Mathew Cuskelly leaving Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

“The conditions as proposed, we would submit sufficiently abrogate the contended risks to such a degree that the presumption against bail would respectfully be reversed and granted on strict conditions which ameliorate the risks to children,” he said.

Mr Cuskelly criticised police for distributing footage of his client’s arrest and then claiming the subsequent media coverage was a reason she should remain in custody for her own protection.

“This level of hypocrisy with respect to those assertions,” he said.

Mr Cuskelly agreed a trial could be two to three years away.

“When one considers the other experts, independent experts, which I will be consulting with in respect to reviewing the material that is contended to be in the police brief this could go on for potentially years,” he said.

Because of the media attention Mr Cuskelly nominated five different bail addresses to have the option of being able to move his client around.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Stephen Courtney said the prosecution case on the material before him could be regarded as strong however it was a complex matter.

“I need to be careful, though, not to be overwhelmed by the fact that the allegations that (the defendant) is facing are so offensive to right thinking people. The level of offence in and of itself, isn’t a factor when considering bail,” he said.

He adjourned the bail application to Wednesday.