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An Aussie influencer who filmed her sick child and uploaded it online in an effort to raise money allegedly drugged her daughter to cause her harm, a court was told.
The woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was charged with five counts of administering poison withintent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud.
Police will allege in court the mother administered five “unauthorised” prescription and pharmacy medications to her 1-year-old child without medical approval between August 6 and October 16.
A high-profile TikTok mum has been charged with drugging her baby. Photo / Queensland Police
The mother was granted bail in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday, two weeks after her arrest at her Sunshine Coast home.
The court was told her 1-year-old daughter had previously been diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), a genetic disorder that can cause seizures and form benign tumours in organs, including the brain.
The court was told doctors had prescribed the child a drug used to reduce seizures known as carbamazepine.
However, after the drug failed to take effect, the child’s medical team stopped prescribing her the medication two weeks after she was first given it, the court was told.
Police will allege in court the child’s mother continued to give her daughter carbamazepine and other unprescribed medications despite the medical advice against it.
The court was told the child had suffered significant medical episodes, including seizures, periods of unexplained altered consciousness, abnormal heart rhythms and a cardiac arrest between August and October.
Considering doctors had stopped prescribing her the carbamazepine, her deteriorating health was a “trigger” for two brain surgeries.
The court was told doctors feared her benign brain tumours were more harmful and operated.
Police will allege in court these surgeries could have been avoided if the child’s mother had followed the doctors’ advice and not administered the medications without their knowledge or consent.
The court was told doctors performed drug screening of the child in October, with their results showing concerning levels of medications not prescribed to the child.
Police will allege the medications found in the child’s system were likely to have caused her clinical deterioration, which included bouts of unconsciousness.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Stephen Courtney said police would allege the drugs found in the child’s system were “at arguably dangerous levels”.
Police will allege the woman caused harm to her daughter by giving her unauthorised medication. Photo / Queensland Police
Raising the alarm
Police were alerted by the hospital about their concerns for the child’s health and an investigation was launched.
It will be alleged in court the mother had turned a CCTV camera away as she covered her child with a blanket and began interfering with the nasogastric tube during the October visit.
Police further investigated how the mother allegedly got the drugs by filling discontinued prescriptions against doctors’ advice.
“Further investigations were conducted and revealed the defendant filling prescriptions for the carbamazepine in the months after the health professionals had told her its therapeutic use had been discontinued,” Courtney said.
“It’s the prosecution’s case that [the mother] administered various drugs to the daughter over a period of about two and a half months that placed the child’s health at direct risk and may have resulted in unnecessary surgery.”
He said police would rely on medical advice and evidence following drug testing of the child that allegedly found “some of all significant medical episodes that the child had been suffering may be the result of the child being administered unprescribed medication”.
‘Bald-faced lie’ about daughter’s health
During the woman’s bail application, prosecutor Jack Scott told the court medical drug testing had found 18mg of carbamazepine in the child’s system in October.
“The lethal dosage for a child is 25mg,” he said.
“There is really no valid explanation as to why, after being made aware of the treatment of the child, that the applicant would not once, not twice, but three times attend upon a pharmacy to fill out a script for a medication which she knows is no longer used for the child, in which she knows causes the child harm.
“And she tells police, and I say this respectfully, a bald-faced lie … that she didn’t knowingly fill out those scripts.”
Scott claimed that as recently as a week ago, the woman had told a forensic psychologist hired by the defence that her child was suffering from a fatal disease known as cerebral tuberculosis and not TCS, which is “a treatable, manageable, non-fatal condition”.
Bail was opposed by police primarily on the basis the woman allegedly posed a risk of endangering the child’s safety.
Scott said the woman had told a psychiatrist about a week ago she believed the child suffered a fatal medical condition.
“All her behaviour suggests that the applicant does not accept that her child suffers from a treatable, manageable, non-fatal condition,” Scott said.
Police will allege the woman drugged her child in order to seek donations and online attention by posting videos to social media of her sick daughter.
