Mum with rare mental illness jailed for ill-treating children

A mother who suffocated her newborn son and made him swallow a battery has been sentenced to seven years and one month imprisonment.

The woman, who is known as ‘‘L’’, was found guilty at a jury trial in September on six charges of illtreating a child, including abusing her son and overdosing her daughter on prescription drugs.

L appeared for sentencing yesterday at the High Court in Auckland in front of Justice Mary Peters.

It was revealed at the hearing the woman was suffering from factitious disorder imposed on another, once known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The mental illness causes people to feign and cause illness in someone under their care.

It was the Crown’s case that over four years, the woman took her daughter to hospital, A&E clinics, and GPs more than 80 times for ailments.

That resulted in the young girl being prescribed medication and undergo invasive procedures, including a lumbar puncture, which she did not need.

L also intentionally overdosed her daughter on prescription medication so she would suffer ataxia, which causes the sufferer to loose control of their limbs.

Police were alerted to the woman’s abuse in October 2015, when she called emergency various non-existent services after her newborn son stopped breathing. The Crown said the woman had intentionally suffocated the boy and then made a video of him turning blue. On another occasion, while on bail for her previous offending, she fed her young son a button battery.

Prosecutor Mark Harborow told the court the offending was extremely serious and required a sentence of imprisonment.

‘‘The reality is, [the son] very nearly died ... He was suffocated twice. He was a defenceless baby, 9 months old, for at least the most serious occasion. He was in a very vulnerable state, the breach of trust in my submission, could not be more serious.’’

The Crown said the woman had made the children sick because she loved the drama of hospitals.

L had since been diagnosed with factitious disorder imposed on another, Harborow said.

During her trial, there was no clear diagnosis for L, so the details of her illness were not detailed to the jury.

L’s lawyer Susan Gray told the court her client was obviously sick, and that a long jail sentence would not be beneficial.

Justice Mary Peters said L’s offending was ‘‘unusual’’. She noted her mental condition was rare, and was confident she would not have offended had she not been sick.

She did not impose a minimum period of imprisonment.

The woman’s children are in the care of Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Vulnerable Children.