The father of a baby boy killed by his own mother has told a South Australian court he feels he may never have another partner or child due to the trauma of his son's death.
Michelle Allison Beal was last year found not guilty of murder due to mental incompetence.
Police went to the then-couple's property at Woodville, in Adelaide's west, in December 2018, where they found a nine-week-old baby boy, Maxwell Plew, who died at the scene.
A court previously heard Beal had been suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder at the time, and was admitted to hospital after her son's death.
Beal released into community
The Supreme Court today heard Beal now had insight into her mental illness and understood she would need to remain on medication permanently.
The court ordered her to remain under a supervision order for life, but released her on license to serve her term in the community.
Speaking in the Supreme Court today, Maxwell's father, Robert Plew, told the court his baby son had been "happy and smiling" when he had left for work that morning.
"I find it hard to trust people now," Mr Plew told the court.
"It's been difficult to find a new relationship [and] I don't talk much to others because I don't know how people will respond (when they find out what happened).
"I now feel like I need to be by myself."
Mr Plew told the court he "felt nothing towards Michelle" because hating her would not help him to heal.
Mr Plew's parents, Kenneth and Terri Plew, also shared the impact of their grandchild's death with the court, saying it had left them "devastated and broken".
"Our lives changed forever [and it's] left a massive hole in our hearts," Kenneth Plew said.
"Heaven now holds his soul."
