‘I don’t want to go to jail’: Child now disabled after mother left baby in hot car
Family support workers warned a toddler was at risk just months before he was left with lifelong disabilities after his mother spent five hours in a Melbourne pokies venue while he was locked in her car on a scorching summer’s day.
The 34-year-old mother pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday to negligently causing serious injury to her son, then 14 months old, after she left him alone in a car outside The Brook gaming venue at Point Cook on January 15, 2020.
Police at the Point Cook gaming venue on the day the boy was injured.
Outside, the summer temperature soared to 37.5 degrees, causing the child to overheat and suffer severe brain and organ damage.
“This is a deeply, deeply sad and distressing case,” Judge Felicity Hampel said.
On Wednesday, the County Court heard the woman struggled after becoming a new mother in 2018, suffering depression and anxiety.
In May the following year, the Department of Health and Human Services suggested she undertake a two-month intensive parenting course.
There, the co-ordinator recommended she receive ongoing parenting support, concerned the boy might sustain a preventable injury or illness with “major consequence”.
“It is frightening to read now after what’s happened,” defence barrister Michael Allen said.
“Notwithstanding those unequivocal findings and recommendations, DHHS withdrew its involvement with the family on August 30, 2019, and it is unclear why that happened.
“After the withdrawal, through to the time of the offence, [the mother] continued to struggle.”
The court heard the woman began having financial difficulties that same year after being charged with deception offences that left her with significant legal costs.
At the same time, with her son still young, she began regularly attending bingo and pokies venues, including The Brook on Sneydes Road at Point Cook, at one point winning the $10,000 jackpot.
Police at the scene in Point Cook.
On the morning of January 15, 2020, the mother arrived at The Brook at 9.56am, parking her Holden Barina outside, as the temperature was hovered near 30 degrees. She left her son in the car and went inside to play bingo, then pokies.
Prosecutor Neill Hutton said by noon the temperature outside had reached 35.3 degrees and at 1.30pm it was 37.5 degrees.
About 2.51pm, CCTV captured the woman returning to her car to find her son critically unwell. She rushed him inside the centre and called for others to phone an ambulance.
By then, the child was unresponsive, fitting, and grey-blue in colour.
A CCTV image taken from The Brook the day the 14-month boy was injured.
Various witnesses said the mother yelled “he’s going to die” before asking others not to tell her husband where she was.
Others said the mother then said, “I just want him to survive because I don’t want to go to jail”.
A doctor and two nurses rushed to the area from a nearby medical clinic, where the woman lied telling them her son was suffering from smoke inhalation with bushfire smoke in the air at the time.
Mr Hutton said the mother continued to lie to other medical staff and police, telling them she’d left the air conditioning running all day and been checking on her son.
As a result of being left in a hot car for almost five hours, Mr Hutton said the boy suffered a severe, irreversible brain injury. He also suffered acute renal failure, liver damage and cortical blindness.
Mr Hutton said the child’s development would now be similar to that of someone with severe cerebral palsy and require significant, lifelong care.
“He will have a significantly reduced quality of life. He will also have a reduced life expectancy,” Mr Hutton said.
“There are really no improvements and none to be expected,” Mr Hutton said.
The matter will return to court at a later date for sentencing.
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