Mother pleads guilty after newborn baby abandoned in stormwater drain for five days
A mother who dumped her newborn son in a Sydney drain, has pleaded guilty to abandoning the child, knowing he could have died.
The woman, who cannot be named, was initially charged with attempted murder after the baby survived for five days in a stormwater drain off a motorway in November 2014.
This week she pleaded guilty to ‘abandoning a child under seven, causing it to be in danger or death and recklessly cause grievous bodily harm’.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported the mother will return to Penrith Local Court on Friday for sentencing and will remain in custody until then.
NSW police claimed the baby boy was born in the early hours of November 18, 2014 and was abandoned hours later, in the drain along the M7 Motorway in Quaker’s Hill.
The infant was found wrapped in a hospital blanket.
Five days later David Otte and his 18-year-old daughter Hayley discovered the baby while they were out cycling.
Initially they thought the cries were a kitten but Mr Otte realised it they were human.
It took six people to lift the drain cover, a concrete slab which weighed more than 200kg.
When they did, they rescued the baby, who was still wrapped in the striped hospital blanket, covered in dirt and with a peg attached to his cut umbilical cord.
It’s believed the baby was dumped through a small gap at the top of the drain.
The baby’s mother had been living with family in Australia, it’s believed she also has another son in New Zealand.
Police claimed the woman had been staying with her aunt and uncle in Quakers Hill when she fell pregnant.
It’s believed she kept her pregnancy a secret.
Police alleged when she gave birth to the healthy baby boy in a western Sydney hospital at 1am on November 18, she discharged herself early and placed her child in the drain, 500m from where she was staying.
News break – March 8
