A HUNTER mother who injected ice and smoked cannabis in the hours before she fell asleep in the bathtub with her 10-week-old daughter, causing the baby girl to nearly drown, has been jailed for a maximum of nine months in Newcastle Local Court.
The woman, 41, who cannot be named because it would identify the little girl, told police she put her daughter in a baby bath at one end of the bathtub, put the plug in, turned the water on and got in the other end.
She said she awoke sometime later to find the bath filled with water and the little girl unconscious.
Tragically, despite the quick intervention of paramedics who rushed the little girl to hospital, she suffered likely permanent injuries, including a hypoxic brain injury and acquired cerebral palsy.
It is not currently possible, due to the girl's age, to determine if she has suffered lasting cognitive effects.
They were injuries that would affect the little girl for the rest of her life, Magistrate Robert Stone told the woman, her head bowed, in Newcastle Local Court.
Mr Stone said it was an extremely negligent act to fall asleep with a baby in the bath and the woman had a long history of drug addiction. The woman was jailed for a maximum of nine months, with a non-parole period of five months.
The woman received a significant reduction on her sentence in part due to what is called an Ellis discount, where an accused person voluntarily discloses to the unknowing authorities details that lead them to be charged with a crime.
She sobbed as she was led down to the courthouse cells by Corrective Services officers, but re-appeared in the dock a short time later after her solicitor, Peter Bates, lodged an appeal against the severity of the sentence.
The woman applied for bail pending her appeal, but it was refused and she will remain behind bars at least until she appears in Newcastle District Court on February 7.
The woman told police that she injected ice sometime on the morning of March 10, 2018, and later that day she smoked two cones of cannabis.
She couldn't sleep that night and went for a walk about 2am before returning home and sleeping until about 7am.
At about 10am she smoked another cone of cannabis and sometime later that morning fell asleep on the couch.
At about 1pm she made the girl some crumpets with honey but then noticed the girl was cold so she took her into the bathroom to run a bath.
She told police she put the girl in a baby bath at one end of the bath, put the plug in, turned the water on and then got into the other end of the bath. The shower head was positioned between the young girl and her mother.
The woman said her last memory was giving the girl some honey from the crumpet before she fell asleep.
