A 14-month-old boy spent two days on life support after tying a dog leash around his mother’s neck and trying to hang her, a court has been told.
A 21-year-old woman has been jailed after trying to kill her newborn son by hanging her from a backyard cloth at her southeast Queensland home.
In the early hours of August 14, 2019, the woman collected her sleeping child, before trying to kill him and take his own life.
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But when she saw her son struggling to breathe, the woman’s “bloody scream” woke up her neighbors.
After calling triple-0, a neighbor jumped off the fence and grabbed the child, who was suspended for about 30 seconds.
He took the leash off the “pale” boy and attempted CPR until he heard the child “making noises,” Crown Prosecutor Carolyn Marko told the Supreme Court in Brisbane.
When paramedics arrived the child was “unresponsive” and was placed on life support for 48 hours, spending a total of 12 days in the hospital.
Since then he has made a full recovery.
“He is a regular three-year-old, curious, curious, exceptionally smart – he is in good health,” the court was told.
The court heard that the mother was in a “state of severe psychological distress” at the time of the incident and was triggered by a social media post from her “unsupportive” former partner, the boy’s father.
The mother “couldn’t have thought of another woman raising her child in his absence” and messaged her current partner, saying: “Goodbye… my son and I will be gone soon.”
Justice Paul Freeburn described the incident involving a “defense and vulnerable” child as horrific.
“Without intervention … he would have died,” he said.
After considering her special circumstances, he sentenced the mother to five years in prison on one charge of attempt to murder (a domestic violence offence).
A woman who pleads guilty is eligible for parole within 12 months.
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