Atax
Jun 27, 2003, 09:42 AM
June 27, 2003
A MAN broke down in court today after his wife was found guilty of torturing and unlawfully wounding her children by giving them laxatives and causing doctors to unnecessarily operate on them.
A Brisbane District Court jury took 24 hours to return guilty verdicts on six of the eight charges faced by the 35-year-old Gold Coast woman, who cannot be named.
The mother of four had pleaded not guilty to three charges of torture, three of unlawful wounding and two of causing a noxious thing to be taken.
But late this afternoon the jury found her guilty of one of the charges of torture, two of causing a noxious thing to be taken and three of unlawful wounding.
After the jury delivered its verdict, the woman's husband cried out "No" and burst into loud sobbing, while his wife sat in the dock crying with her head buried in her hands.
Later he reached under a glass partition separating him from his wife and they managed briefly to link fingers before she was led from the dock.
"I love you," he cried before turning to members of the court and saying, "I hope youse can live with yourselves."
During the five-week trial the prosecution alleged that over five years the woman gave the children Epsom salts or some other laxative at different times to fool doctors into believing they had major medical problems.
It was alleged this resulted in them being subjected to painful and invasive medical procedures that were not needed, including having feed lines inserted as doctors tried to find the cause of their illnesses.
Giving evidence, the woman told the court she may have accidentally given Epsom salts, which she had bought for her own use, to her youngest child while he was in the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in November 2001.
The charges followed video surveillance of the woman while she spent two days with the child at the hospital.
Her counsel maintained that she was simply exaggerating the symptoms of her children to gain them priority medical attention.
The court was told the woman appeared to be suffering from a condition known as Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy, in which people create medical symptoms in others to draw attention to themselves.
The jury found the woman guilty of three charges of unlawful wounding, guilty of a charge of causing a noxious thing to be taken but not guilty of torture of one of her children; not guilty of torture but guilty of causing a noxious thing to be taken on the second child and guilty of torture of the youngest child over the period from February 2000 until November 2001, which included the time of video surveillance in the hospital.
In a special verdict, the jury said the final guilty charge related to the administration of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) or other laxatives; giving the boy insufficient nutrients and having invasive medical procedures performed by medical personnel.
Judge Kerry O'Brien remanded the woman in custody for mention of the case on July 18 with sentencing to be carried out at a date to be fixed.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6663408%255E1702,00.html
A MAN broke down in court today after his wife was found guilty of torturing and unlawfully wounding her children by giving them laxatives and causing doctors to unnecessarily operate on them.
A Brisbane District Court jury took 24 hours to return guilty verdicts on six of the eight charges faced by the 35-year-old Gold Coast woman, who cannot be named.
The mother of four had pleaded not guilty to three charges of torture, three of unlawful wounding and two of causing a noxious thing to be taken.
But late this afternoon the jury found her guilty of one of the charges of torture, two of causing a noxious thing to be taken and three of unlawful wounding.
After the jury delivered its verdict, the woman's husband cried out "No" and burst into loud sobbing, while his wife sat in the dock crying with her head buried in her hands.
Later he reached under a glass partition separating him from his wife and they managed briefly to link fingers before she was led from the dock.
"I love you," he cried before turning to members of the court and saying, "I hope youse can live with yourselves."
During the five-week trial the prosecution alleged that over five years the woman gave the children Epsom salts or some other laxative at different times to fool doctors into believing they had major medical problems.
It was alleged this resulted in them being subjected to painful and invasive medical procedures that were not needed, including having feed lines inserted as doctors tried to find the cause of their illnesses.
Giving evidence, the woman told the court she may have accidentally given Epsom salts, which she had bought for her own use, to her youngest child while he was in the Mater Hospital in Brisbane in November 2001.
The charges followed video surveillance of the woman while she spent two days with the child at the hospital.
Her counsel maintained that she was simply exaggerating the symptoms of her children to gain them priority medical attention.
The court was told the woman appeared to be suffering from a condition known as Munchhausen's Syndrome by Proxy, in which people create medical symptoms in others to draw attention to themselves.
The jury found the woman guilty of three charges of unlawful wounding, guilty of a charge of causing a noxious thing to be taken but not guilty of torture of one of her children; not guilty of torture but guilty of causing a noxious thing to be taken on the second child and guilty of torture of the youngest child over the period from February 2000 until November 2001, which included the time of video surveillance in the hospital.
In a special verdict, the jury said the final guilty charge related to the administration of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) or other laxatives; giving the boy insufficient nutrients and having invasive medical procedures performed by medical personnel.
Judge Kerry O'Brien remanded the woman in custody for mention of the case on July 18 with sentencing to be carried out at a date to be fixed.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6663408%255E1702,00.html