Jury to rule on whether Darwin mum Laura Hinks kidnapped her own five-year-old daughter

Darwin mum Laura Hinks will now face a Supreme Court jury after prosecutors abandoned plans for a judge alone trial that had been due to start this week.

Laura Hinks outside the Darwin Local Court after a previous appearance. Picture: Floss Adams.

The fate of a Darwin mum accused of kidnapping her own five-year-old daughter will be decided by a Supreme Court jury after plans for a judge alone trial were abandoned.

Laura Hinks, 35, faced the Darwin Local Court on Thursday where her lawyer Glenn Mohammed agreed there was a prima facie case justifying her committal to the higher court.

Hinks did not enter a plea and will face a call-over hearing on September 7 where trial dates will be sought for her and her co-accused.

In committing the case for a jury trial on Thursday, Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris said prosecutors had pulled the pin on a Local Court hearing that had been due to begin last Monday.

“Ms Hinks, your lawyer will have explained to you about this process, about why this matter’s had to go to the Supreme Court,” she said.

“It’s not necessarily a decision that you have made but other people have indicated that they wish for their matters to go to the Supreme Court and the prosecution has thus made a determination that all the matters should be dealt with together.

“So the process today is one where I’m satisfied from the information that has been tendered that the matter should proceed to the Supreme Court.”

Hinks had previously applied for a stay of the proceedings against her, with Mr Mohammed telling an earlier hearing mothers could not be guilty of kidnapping their own children.

Mr Mohammed argued abduction differed from other criminal offences in that it recognised parents as “a distinct category” of people who may have a legal responsibility for the child.

“If a parent physically disciplines a child (for example), the relevant legislation, either state or territory, would simply be a person assaulting another person, it wouldn’t be related to that person being a parent or not,” he said.

“In (that) instance, an assault may be prosecuted because it’s a more general type of offence, whereas what we’re dealing with (here) is very specific.

“This is an issue between two parents, not one of a parent and a stranger or someone who had no parental responsibility at all.”

But in ruling the case should proceed to trial in April, judge Sue Oliver said Hinks’ parental responsibility for the girl “had clearly been limited” on the day she took her from a supervised visit in Berrimah in August last year.

“It is a matter of common knowledge that the biological relationship of ‘mother’ or ‘father’ does not always carry with it full parental rights, as these can be altered by court orders, among other things,” she said.

Originally published as Jury to rule on whether Darwin mum Laura Hinks kidnapped her own five-year-old daughter