ACT Magistrates Court sentences mother for child neglect

When police visited the home a second time, they discovered a 20-centimetre long knife resting in a child seat on the floor.

The woman, 27, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.

The court heard she had fled civil war in Sudan and moved to Australia only to become a domestic slave for family members before running away.

In sentencing, magistrate Jane Campbell took the woman's resulting post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues into account.

"That experience imprints on a person's psyche," Ms Campbell said.

The 27-year-old mother pleaded guilty to three charges relating to child neglect.

Ms Campbell detailed the facts of the case, saying that on February 9, 2022, a neighbour heard crying and went to investigate.

The neighbour found the two-year-old alone in the home, standing on the other side of a screen door, wearing soiled clothing.

They contacted police, who were unable to reach the mother for almost four hours. Officers were required to contact a locksmith to get inside. They then found faeces on the floor, and a knife at an accessible height.

Ms Campell stated the child was in "significant danger" because at that age "they are able to get into everything".

"To leave a child for such an extended period of time in my view is likely to cause harm to that child psychologically," she said.

In April 2023, police and Child and Youth Protective Services visited the home again.

The mother let them in after spending 28 minutes looking for a key to unlock the door.

Police described the home as having "an odour", a soiled floor, cockroaches and cockroach nests, an oven full of rubbish, and mouldy food in the fridge.

It was said a shisha and a glass bong were sitting on the kitchen bench. A 20cm knife was also resting on a child seat which was placed on the dirty floor.

Prosecutor Rhiannon McGlinn said the bong was at a height accessible to the two children present, which created a danger to the then four and six-year-old.

To this the magistrate asked: "Why? Because they might start smoking the bong?"

"If it gets knocked off the glass [could shatter]," Ms McGlinn responded.

"The prosecution's primary concern is the access to a knife on a child's car seat on the floor.

"[It is a] piece of property a child would associate with themselves."

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Defence lawyer Georgia Le Couteur told the court it was "a reckless offence rather than an intentional depravation".

She said the mother "suffered through a history that most of us can't even image let alone pick ourselves up and move on from".

The magistrate sentenced the mother to an 18-month good behaviour order.

The children remain with Child and Youth Protective Services.

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