A Gold Coast mum has confessed to locking her two-month-old baby in her car for nearly an hour.
The Southport Magistrates Court heard this morning that the new mum, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, parked her vehicle under a tree with the windows wound up while she enjoyed a 45-minute aromatherapy massage.
The incident took place outside the French Beauty Academy in Robina on August 8 this year.
When asked by reporters why she left her young daughter alone, she said: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Police prosecutor sergeant Nick Wang said two witnesses observed the child crying in a “distressed state” and immediately called triple zero.
After being unable to contact the mum as her phone was also locked in the vehicle, emergency services were forced to cut the roof of the car open. The baby was then rushed to hospital.
The 26-year-old returned to her car to find her child missing and was notified that her daughter had been taken to hospital.
The court heard that when speaking to officers she showed a “complete lack of knowledge of the danger of leaving a child in the car.”
WATCH: The QLD mother leaves court. Post continues…
Defence lawyer Callan Brown argued that his client had been suffering from postnatal depression and was “struggling with lack of sleep.”
However, Magistrate Kay Philipson found “there was no material evidence” to support such a claim.
“It could have resulted in very serious consequences,” Ms Philipson said of locking the child in the car.
The mother was sentenced to nine months probation and will be obliged to undertake parenting courses.
