Aussie mom charged with attempted murder of baby

S YDNE Y ( AP ) — A 30-year-old Australian mother has been charged with the attempted murder of her newborn son who was allegedly abandoned in a roadside drain for five days before passers- by heard his cries, police said yesterday.

The week-old baby was in serious but stable condition in Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital yesterday, a day after a group of cyclists found him in a 2.5-meter deep drain beside the M7 Motorway in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, police said in a statement.

His mother Saifale Nai, of Quakers Hill, did not appear in the Blacktown Local Court yesterday to answer the attempted murder charge. She faces a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.

Her lawyer did not apply for bail or enter a plea to the charge. The magistrate formally refused her bail.

Nai will remain in custody until she appears in the Penrith Local Court on Friday.

“Police will allege the baby, believed to have been born on Monday (Nov. 17), was placed into the drain on Tuesday,” the police statement said.

Andrew Pesce, a gynecologist, obstetrician and former president of the Australian Medical Association, the nation’s leading doctors’ group, said such an ordeal could leave a newborn baby with longterm problems such as brain damage.

“There would still have to be some concerns about the baby,” Pesce said.

“I would have thought that it wouldn’t have been able to survive for much longer if it didn’t start getting fed,” he added.