Australian woman accused of poisoning 1-year-old girl, posting videos for donations, police say

In Australia, a woman was arrested for allegedly giving a one-year-old girl various medications to make her sick for several months, then posting videos of the child online to gain sympathy and donations , indicated the local police.

The child was subjected to “tremendous distress and pain” for more than two months between August and October last year, Queensland Police said in a media release on Thursday. The relationship between the 34-year-old woman, who police have not identified, and the girl was not immediately clear.

Police said the woman “went to great lengths to obtain” unauthorized medications, including “old medications” for another person in their home, and “carefully concealed” her efforts to giving these medications to the child, including while she was in a Brisbane hospital. where the child was hospitalized.

Hospital staff eventually discovered what the woman was doing and reported her to police last October, authorities said. On Jan. 7, tests performed on the child returned positive results for unauthorized drugs, police said.

According to BBC News, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton told reporters the woman had raised 60,000 Australian dollars, the equivalent of around $37,000, through GoFundMe donations.

She was arrested on Thursday at her home in Morningside, a suburb of Brisbane, on five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparing to commit crimes with dangerous objects and one count each torture, manufacturing child exploitation material and fraud. , said the police.

According to BBC News, Dalton told reporters that the child was now “safe and doing well”, and that no one else had been charged over the alleged abuse.