Andrew William Campbell pleads guilty to unlawfully killing baby Dexter Wilton
A man has sprinted from court after entering a bombshell plea just moments before his manslaughter trial over the death of eight-month-old Dexter Wilton was due to start.
QLD News
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A man who killed a little baby has sprinted from court moments after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Andrew William Campbell today pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing eight-month-old Dexter Wilton – the child of his partner Natalie Jade Whitehead, 38 – in her Ipswich home on June 21, 2019.
Whitehead was jailed for nine years after she pleaded guilty to Dexter’s manslaughter in October.
During her sentencing Brisbane Supreme Court heard she had “chose to nourish her drug habit over her infant” having neglected him while on a drug bender with Campbell.
Whitehead was found clutching Dexter to her chest, crying having delayed calling police by frantically washing her son’s body and cleaning her “disgusting” house in an “an obvious attempt to diminish (her) responsibility”.
She had spent the days prior to Dexter’s death consuming drugs with Campbell and had not checked on him for the past 21 hours, the court was told.
Whitehead then found him dead in his cot.
Dexter was estimated to have already been deceased for two to three hours as a result of what was found to be severe dehydration and malnutrition.
The court heard a specialist pediatrician concluded Dexter had “suffered severe neglect of his most basic needs”.
The court heard Whitehead had washed Dexter’s body and changed his nappy before contacting police – allegedly aided by Campbell.
It’s alleged Campbell dumped a bag of rubbish in their neighbours bin, telling them not to tell police, and that he gave another bag containing drug paraphernalia to another, the court head.
Whitehead and Campbell were both initially charged with murder in December 2020, but those charges were later dropped and replaced with manslaughter for each defendant.
Campbell pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Brisbane’s Supreme Court on Monday just before his seven-day trial was set to begin
A charge of misconduct with a corpse by interfering was withdrawn by Crown prosecutor Matt LeGrand.
Campbell’s sentence was delayed to allow his defence team to organise a psychological or psychiatric report.
Campbell, who was on bail, sprinted from waiting media outside court following the matter’s adjournment.
A sentencing date has not been set.
Originally published as Andrew William Campbell pleads guilty to unlawfully killing baby Dexter Wilton
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