Woman who kidnapped baby now pregnant, court told

File photo / Herald on Sunday

A woman who admitted trying to snatch a baby from a Christchurch hospital is now four months pregnant, a court was told today.

"God only knows how she is going to look after a child with all these anxiety disorders," said Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave as he reimposed a community work sentence because of her "patchy performance" so far.

The court was told today that Rachel Marie French, 22, had already miscarried twice.

Judge Neave said she had deluded family into thinking she was pregnant at the time she kidnapped the two-day old baby boy from the maternity ward at St George's Hospital on December 3, 2008.

At her original sentencing in June 2009, Judge Neave said French had been "a very disturbed young woman" who had lived in a fantasy world involving wanting to have children.

She went to the hospital pretending to be a trainee midwife. She had with her a nappy, a pacifier, a blanket and clothing, suggesting she went there intending to take a baby.

She met a woman who had previously known her and convinced her to let her take the baby boy away.

The abduction lasted only a few seconds because a nurse spotted her carrying the baby in her arms which was a breach of the hospital protocol.

French has repeatedly been back to court because of problems carrying out the 250-hour community work sentence she received.

Judge Neave gave her a third chance to do the sentence when she appeared for breaching the sentence in August, but he remanded her to today to monitor her progress.

Another judge had passed the resentencing on to Judge Neave because of suspicions that French was trying to evade the sentence.

That judge, Gary MacAskill, said there was a suggestion French was being "reasonably creative" about the anxiety disorder that she said prevented her from doing the community work.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger today asked Judge Neave to cancel the community work and intensive supervision sentencings and start afresh today.

She said the court would not be wrong in sending French to prison as she had been given a lot of chances, but it would not be ideal both emotionally or for her health to send a pregnant woman there. She said the baby was due early next year.

Judge Neave said French presented a sentencing puzzle. He noted the numerous probation and psychiatric reports which said she had significant psychological, sociological and emotional problems which interfered with doing community work.

He said he didn't think she was manipulating the system, and she remained at risk of miscarriage.

He told her that most people would go to prison for her performance, but that the community work she did do may have required a greater effort for her than most other people.

He imposed a new sentence of 225 hours community work and 12 months intensive supervision.

He told French she would have to come to terms with her anxieties if she was going to carry the child to full term.

- NZPA