‘JAIL TOT WITH ME’
Drug-dealer mother to apply for daughter, 1, to join her behind bars
A 22-MONTH-OLD toddler faces time behind bars with her drug-dealer mother who has been sentenced to jail for trafficking ice.
Georgia Tanya Herrmann, 22, (left) is seeking Queensland Corrective Services permission to allow her daughter, who cannot be identified, to stay in prison with her while she serves time for trafficking.
Herrmann believes it will be in the best interests of the girl, who turns 2 in May, to be inside with her. The toddler’s father is in prison as well while he awaits sentencing, also for trafficking.
A TODDLER may have to spend the next 18 months in jail because her mother, a convicted drug dealer, believes the little girl will be better off.
Georgia Tanya Herrmann wants her daughter, who will turn two in May, to be allowed to stay with her while she serves part of a five-year jail term for trafficking ice.
The Cairns Supreme Court was told the 22-year-old mother, who consumed methylamphetamines while pregnant, will apply to Queensland Corrective Services for permission.
Barrister James Sheridan told the court the child’s father was also behind bars awaiting sentence for trafficking.
Before being jailed, Herrmann had been living with her mother.
“She has a very troubled history or relationship … she instructs that her mother is an alcoholic and it has been a very troubled upbringing,” Mr Sheridan said.
A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman said there was a provision for women in custody to apply for children to reside with them but a child must be younger than prep age.
“The prisoner must make an application, which includes an interview by the Correctional Counsellor and liaison with Department of Child Safety and the Family Court to ensure there are no orders in place that may prevent the child residing with their mother.”
The spokesman said there were also checks to confirm immunisation as well as input from other family members.
The court was told Herrmann had been caught trafficking ice for about five months in late 2016 in amounts from half grams to ounces.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said that, while Herrmann had been young at the time, just 20, she was not naive in her criminal conduct and had been aware people were onselling the drugs.
“To say that it’s a dysfunctional and disadvantaged upbringing that saw her commit the offending is an understatement,” Mr Sheridan said.
“Her mother is unemployed and on a disability pension.” She also described her father as an alcoholic, who she had no relationship with.”
She left home at 13 and didn’t return until recently because “she could not tolerate the drunken behaviour of her parents”.
Hermann first tried ice at 16 and soon fell into the grip of a drug addiction, eventually selling to support her habit.
“Your child is now in a position where both parents will be in jail,” Chief Justice Catherine Holmes said.
“You really need to do your best to set yourself on a reasonable path for when you’re released so you don’t go back to this kind of life if that child is to have any hope.
“Children of methylamphetamine addicts have grim experiences and grim futures.”
Herrmann will be eligible for parole in September next year.