Cairns crime: Nurse Shantali Suzann Bramble guilty of injecting minor with methamphetamine

A 15-year-old girl who was injected with methamphetamine multiple times by a 39-year-old nurse ended up in Cairns Hospital being treated for drug abuse, a court has heard.

A 15-year-old girl who was injected with methamphetamine multiple times by a 39-year-old nurse ended up in Cairns Hospital being treated for drug abuse, Cairns Supreme Court has heard.

Brinsmead woman Shantali Suzann Bramble, 39, pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years.

Crown prosecutor Tim Watkins told the court Bramble injected the girl on April 16 and 17, 2022 and the offending came to light when the girl was hospitalised.

Bramble was identified because she had used her name and mobile phone number to call a taxi to take the girl from Yorkeys Knob to a house in Manunda to procure meth, Mr Watkins told the court.

He said Bramble was arrested on October 28, 2022, as part of Operation Kalahari, and was granted bail.

Brinsmead woman Shantali Suzann Bramble pleaded guilty in Cairns Supreme Court to three counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor under 16 years. Picture: Supplied

He said Bramble thought the girl was 18 years old but the girl corrected her and told her she was 15 years old.

“Once they arrived at the house she arranged for one point of meth to be supplied to the child,” Mr Watkins said.

“She told the complainant she was a nurse and knew what she was doing and dissolved the methamphetamine into water drawn into a syringe and she injected the child.”

He said four or five doses were administered to the girl during that night, they stayed at the house, and Bramble again injected the girl the following morning.

Later in the day, Bramble and the girl went to Cairns Night Markets to meet with the girl’s father.

“When they arrived the defendant went to a secluded area to charge her phone in the stairwell, the child and father went with her, and in that stairwell she injected the complainant again with methamphetamine,” Mr Watkins said.

Cairns Supreme Court heard Shantali Suzann Bramble, who has two children, injected a 15-year-old girl with methamphetamine. Picture: file photo

Defence barrister Rachelle Logan outlined Bramble’s troubled history, saying she used cannabis from age 13 and following significant violence she used meth from age 15 to 17.

“It was a chaotic two years in her life, she was in a relationship … and he was a drug user,” Ms Logan said.

“She had the ongoing support of her close knit family, her mother stepped in and took her overseas to break the link with that peer group and with the drug and that step was successful.”

Ms Logan said Bramble worked in the family business and as a receptionist and qualified as a nurse, working in that role periodically while raising her children, now aged 17 and six years.

A 17-year marriage soured and she experienced significant physical violence and financial control, Ms Logan said.

Defence barrister Rachelle Logan said Bramble, 39, was “drug-addled” at the time she injected methamphetamine into a 15-year-old girl and did not have a good memory of it, but accepted the crown’s case. Picture: file photo

Her husband introduced meth into the home and she smoked casually with him on weekends, the court was told.

“The effect of the drug on him was that he became more violent and that caused Ms Bramble to leave,” Ms Logan said.

In 2018 a disruptive family matter occurred, she said.

“The day that occurred, Ms Bramble completely spiralled, she shaved her head, she had been smoking meth but started injecting, living a life on the street and her usage took her to 3g a day,” Ms Logan said.

She said Bramble’s parents tried to help.

“At the time of this offending, she was completely drug-addled,” Ms Logan said.

Bramble was on bail for other offences at the time.

Ms Logan said Bramble had been clean since February 9, 2023, and had received a nine month abstinence chip from Narcotics Anonymous.

“In the preceding nine days, she was consuming as much as she could, her father had taken her to hospital and mentioned it was her birthday, and that was the reality check she needed to stop,” Ms Logan said, outlining extensive steps Bramble had taken toward rehabilitation.

Justice James Henry remanded Bramble in custody overnight to consider her sentence.

On Wednesday, Justice Henry sentenced Bramble to 16 months prison with a parole release date of March 27, 2024.

Bramble sobbed in the dock.

She asked to hug family members and was told she was not allowed to.

“You of all people know it wreaks havoc on lives and misery on families,” he said.

“Worse still, for some users it has the effect of significant aggression, paranoia and resultant violence against quite innocent members of the community sometimes with appalling results, as homicide trials in the last couple of decades demonstrate, catastrophic results from time to time,” Justice Henry said.

He noted after Bramble was arrested and received bail, she was convicted of two further offences in early 2023 including possessing a knife in a public place.

“You at the time of your offending I’m told were consuming yourself above 3g a day of methamphetamine, obviously addicted to the drug in a cycle of life where there had been successes and failures in getting off the drug,” Justice Henry said.

He noted Bramble had family support from when she was a teen to family present in court, and that she currently faced medical issues including a neurological disorder which impacted her ability to walk at times.

Originally published as Cairns crime: Nurse Shantali Suzann Bramble guilty of injecting minor with methamphetamine