Five-year-old left in car for 30 minutes

Woman ‘forgot’ granddaughter was in car

A 50-YEAR-OLD Toowoomba woman who left her fiveyear-old granddaughter asleep in the car and then forgot about her has been placed on probation.

The woman was on the Gold Coast for a family holiday in January when she had driven to a shopping centre about 10.30am, January 7, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told on Monday.

A 50-YEAR-OLD Toowoomba woman who left her fiveyear-old granddaughter asleep in the car and then forgot about her has been placed on probation.

Bronwyn Anne McCurley had been on the Gold Coast for a family holiday in January when she had driven to a shopping centre about 10.30am, January 7, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told.

Police were called by security officers who saw the child sleeping inside the vehicle, police prosecutor Leea Trewin told the court.

Police arrived to find the security officers had been able to get into the car and get the girl out and she was upset and calling for her mother while being held by one of the officers, Senior Constable Trewin said.

Police found some personal papers inside the car, one of which had a photo of McCurley who the girl referred to as “my Nanny”. The police were able to find a contact number for the girl’s mother who then called her mother, the child’s grandmother, who returned to the car, she said.

McCurley told police she had left her granddaughter in the car while she went to a nearby pharmacy to obtain blood pressure medication but had then forgotten the child was in the car.

The child had been unattended in the car for about half-an-hour, Snr Const Trewin told the court.

McCurley pleaded guilty to one charge of leaving a child under 12 unattended.

Snr Const Trewin said the maximum penalty for the offence was three years in jail but conceded McCurley had no previous criminal history and nothing of similar nature.

“There needs to be a deterrent in light of events up north of children being left unattended,” she said.

Duty lawyer Ryan McCullough, of MacDonald Law, said his client suffered depression and anxiety and had since this incident been receiving counselling.

Magistrate Geoffrey Seaholme placed McCurley on 12 months’ probation with no conviction recorded so she would continue counselling.

“Leaving children unattended in vehicles is something that has become quite topical at the moment,” he said.