Allegedly murdered boy suffered blow to head before death: police
By Cloe Read
A nine-year-old boy who was allegedly killed by a woman had suffered a significant head injury and probably died from blunt force trauma, detectives believe.
The boy was found dead in a room at a home in Kirwan, in Townsville, on Saturday night by police and paramedics.
The home will remain a crime scene as forensic teams search the area. Credit: Nine News
A 24-year-old woman, who police said had a “loose family connection” with the boy, was charged with his murder, and was expected to appear in court on Monday morning.
Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Miles said the child was in the woman’s care at the time. The woman’s children were also in the Charles Street house but she was the only adult present.
Miles said the boy had suffered a significant head injury, which was “obvious” to emergency services when they arrived.
“At the moment the injury is consistent with what I would say at this stage appears to be blunt force trauma,” he said.
“We’ll wait for the outcome of the autopsy before we make an absolute determination on what weapon may have been used.”
Miles said police were called to the home after the woman made a call to another relative, who then alerted the Queensland Ambulance Service about 7pm.
Police believed the child might have suffered the injury within the eight hours before emergency services were called.
“As to what point the child was deceased will be a matter for the autopsy,” Miles said.
“The child was clearly deceased when police and QAS were on scene.”
Miles said police had attended the property before, but not for criminal reasons.
“I can speak for myself as a member of the community, obviously anything involving a traumatic injury and the death of a child, which in circumstances like this occurs, it’s quite abhorrent,” he said.
“No child should be subjected to anything that obviously leads to this sort of outcome for them, and it’s totally understandable that the community would be quite upset.”
The woman was scheduled to appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court, as investigations continued.
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