Kaija Millar left baby in car for five hours in 37C to play pokies at Melbourne pub

A mother left her son in a car for nearly five hours as temperatures soared to 37C. Warning: Graphic content.

A Melbourne mum left her 14-month-old son in a car for almost five hours while she played pokies and bingo at a suburban pub as temperatures hit a scorching 37C.

Kaija Millar left her son Easton in the car outside The Brook hotel at Point Cook in January 2020 and pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury at the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday.

During a pre-sentence hearing, it was revealed the 34-year-old told a series of lies to police and paramedics about what happened to her son in the aftermath of the incident.

She left the 14-month-old boy alone in the car with the windows rolled up and with no airconditioning after arriving at the pub about 9.50am on January 15.

For nearly five hours she played bingo and pokies until she checked up on him at 2.50pm after temperatures reached a peak of 37.5C, prosecutor Neil Hutton said.

Kaija Millar pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury after she left her 14-month-old son, Easton, in the car while she gambled at a pub in Point Cook.

The boy was fitting, his skin was a “grey-blue” colour and his eyes were wide open when she found him, he said.

“He’s going to die, he’s going to die, don’t die bubba,” Millar screamed after finding her son in the car and rushing him into the pub.

Millar said she’d found him in the car and said “don’t tell my husband”, according to witnesses.

The 14-month-old was rushed to hospital with severe heat stroke and kidney failure that required dialysis, and spent a lengthy period in intensive care.

Easton is now blind, has a severe brain injury, cannot sit by himself and is unable speak.

But when medical staff and paramedics arrived at the scene, Millar gave conflicting explanations about what happened to the boy and blamed bushfire smoke for his condition.

When medical staff and paramedics arrived at the scene, Millar gave conflicting explanations about what happened to her son, including blaming bushfires. Picture: Ian Currie

“The smoke has made my baby ill,” she said.

She told paramedics the boy had been in the car since 12.30pm, but that the windows were open and she was checking on him every two hours.

“I just want him to survive because I don’t want to go to jail,” the prosecutor said Millar told paramedics.

When police probed her about what happened, she said she parked in the shade, checked on him and let the windows down.

However, Mr Hutton said CCTV footage showed the first-time mum didn’t go to the car to check on him while she was gambling and told another bingo “devotee” her mother was taking care of the infant.

During the hearing, Millar cried and wiped her eyes, took notes and covered her face with her hand.

“I just want him to survive because I don’t want to go to jail,” the prosecutor said Millar told paramedics. Picture: Ian Currie

Her lawyer Michael Allen told the court she was suffering from postnatal depression, had a cognitive impairment with a low IQ and was struggling to cope at the time.

“This is a case of profound tragedy,” he said.

The mum acknowledged she caused “severe and lifelong” injuries to her only child but she was “utterly overwhelmed” by the demands of motherhood, the lawyer said.

The lies she told to authorities should be given little weight and she was in a situation of “shock, panic and immense distress”, Mr Allen argued.

He asked her to be sentenced to a community corrections order while prosecutors pushed for her to be jailed with a non-parole period.

Judge Felicity Hampel said it was a “deeply, deeply sad and distressing” case and will sentence Millar later this month.

Originally published as Kaija Millar left baby in car for five hours in 37C to play pokies at Melbourne pub