Author Fiori Giovanni charged with child homicide after daughter drowned in bathtub
A Melbourne media commentator has fronted court charged over the drowning death of her seven-month-old baby. The little girl was found unresponsive in the bath at her Southbank apartment in July.
Police & Courts
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Media commentator and best-selling author Fiori Giovanni has fronted court charged with killing her seven-month-old baby daughter.
The Herald Sun can reveal Victoria Police last week charged the inspirational life coach and motivational speaker with child homicide after baby Illen was found unresponsive at her Southbank apartment about 7.20am on July 18.
Ms Giovanni, 35, was bailed to front Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The court heard Ms Giovanni had been charged in relation to criminal negligence after her baby girl drowned when she left her unattended in the bathtub with her older brother.
Ms Giovanni unsuccessfully applied to have her name and details of the case suppressed.
Her lawyer Adrian Lewin told the court she had concerns about her safety as she had received hate mail in the past when making controversial public statements about issues involving the African community.
Magistrate Mia Stylianou said the child homicide charge Ms Giovanni was facing was a “completely different complexion” to those opinion pieces.
“I’m having trouble making the connection,” she said.
Ms Stylianou refused the gag order application.
Ms Giovanni has not been able to be contacted for comment.
In a public post on social media in the days after her daughter’s death, Ms Giovanni shared that it was with “deepest sorrow and soul-wrenching heartbreak that we inform you of the death of our beautiful little angel” alongside happy family snaps of her and former partner Ben Bellinger, with their two children.
“A shining star was sent to us to inspire, change, and transform our lives in the short 7 and half months we had the pleasure of being with her,” Ms Giovanni posted.
“We are currently not taking calls for we need this time to heal and process and be there for our beautiful son but we’ve decided to have her cremated so that she can always be here with us.”
Due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions, she invited family and friends to attend a Zoom funeral to say their goodbyes.
“Our beautiful angel may be gone and we can’t physically hold her but her amazing presence can never be forgotten as she’ll forever be in our heart. And the light she has sparked in us can never be put out,” Ms Giovanni wrote.
Ms Giovanni has inspired thousands with her courageous personal story of being born in war-torn Africa where she escaped being a child bride in an arranged marriage aged 12 before being mandatorily enlisted in the army as a teenager to fight the war against Ethiopia.
Her autobiography, Defy your Destiny, traces her path to becoming a successful entrepreneur in Australia including how she clung to life in a leaking boat loaded with refugees to flee in search for a better life.
She has had many guest appearances on morning TV programs and has received standing ovations at corporate functions where she has been the keynote speaker.
She has founded businesses Transformations Coaching Group and MY Mind Valley and has published more than 30 self-help e-books on issues including smoking, anxiety, weight loss and procrastination.
In more recent videos, she has touched on how to handle grief, pain and loss, drawing on her recent loss of her baby and how “this is something that no parent should ever have to go through”.
“I thought I had been through the worst type of pain the world has to offer,” she says in her first video, posted online last month, since Illen’s death.
“But I’m quickly realising that the kind of pain that comes from losing a child is a different kind of pain.
“It’s something that takes a piece of you and I don’t think you ever get it back.
“It is something that I have never felt before.”
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