By Rebecca Peppiatt and Amber Wilkinson
A 42-year-old West Australian woman who was found guilty of deliberately injecting her disabled daughter with a near-fatal dose of insulin has been sentenced to three years in prison.
The mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, was arrested and charged after blood tests following a triple-zero call in January 2022 showed the girl had life-threatening levels of insulin in her system.
The mother was sentenced in the District Court of WA.Credit: Emma Young
The girl was born with a rare condition called Aicardi-Goutières syndrome, which affects the brain, immune system and skin. She has cerebral palsy and can’t talk, walk, use her limbs, or eat properly.
Prosecutors previously said the woman attempted to take the girl’s life because “she had had enough” and was “at the end of her ability to care for her daughter”.
But during her trial in May, the woman told the jury she took a prescription filled out by her GP, Dr Pieter Austin, and intended to inject the girl with the insulin to get her “the help she needed” via an emergency hospital admission.
She gave evidence that the incident took place during the COVID pandemic, which put a strain on specific food supplies for the girl, as well as on her husband’s employment, forcing the family to sell their home.
The woman said that at the same time, her daughter’s symptoms were becoming “more and more erratic” and she was struggling to access the right care.
Medical notes and letters presented to the court showed Austin repeatedly sought specialist care and advice for the mother regarding the child’s condition.
The woman gave evidence that she was given a script for insulin by Austin which she filled at a nearby pharmacy before throwing the insulin into her bin.
She is later accused of administering another dose of insulin prescribed following another visit to Austin, which caused the child to be admitted to hospital, where the near-fatal dose was discovered during blood tests.
Austin was later charged with attempted murder.
The woman will be eligible for parole in October 2025.
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