An Australian woman has been arrested on suspicion of giving a one-year-old baby girl various drugs that made her sick for several months, then posting a video of the infant online to solicit sympathy and donations, local police said.
Queensland Police said in a news release on Thursday that the boy was subjected to “immense pain and suffering” over two months between August and October last year. Police have not disclosed the relationship between the 34-year-old woman and the girl at this time.
Police said the woman had “taken pains to obtain” unlicensed drugs, including other people’s “old drugs”, from her home and tried to give them to her children, including in a Brisbane hospital. “It was carefully concealed,” he said. Where the child was hospitalized.
Hospital staff eventually noticed the woman’s behavior and called police last October, authorities said. Police announced on January 7 that a test conducted on the child came back positive for illicit medication.
According to BBC News, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton told reporters that the woman had raised A$60,000 (equivalent to about $37,000) through GoFundMe donations.
She was arrested on Thursday at her home in the Brisbane suburb of Morningside on five counts of administering a poison with intent to cause harm, three counts of preparing a crime with a dangerous substance, and one count each of child exploitation and torture in connection with fraud. It was done. said the police.
Dalton told reporters that the child is now “safe and doing well” and that no one else has been charged with abuse, according to BBC News.
