Multi-tasking manslaughter
A Wellington woman spoke on the phone for more than eight minutes as her 15-month-old baby drowned in the bath, a jury has heard.
She then made two separate calls to her parents, trying to arrange for a rug doctor to clean the carpets later that day.
This will be interesting to see how the jury view this; whether they excuse this mother’s negligence as she has suffered the loss of a child or they hold the woman to account for prioritising the housework above the well being of a child.
Updated 31 October The jury return their verdict.
A Wellington mother has been found not guilty of killing her 13-month-old son, who drowned in the bath while she spoke on the phone.
In the High Court in Wellington this afternoon, a jury of seven men and five woman found the woman’s fatal mistake to talk on the phone for eight minutes while her child bathed was not bad enough too warrant a conviction for manslaughter.
WTF…..her failings did not meet the threshold of criminal liability
Where the hell do they come up with these observations?
Getting to be second nature in this country. We are all aware how different the outcome would be if the parent was a dad. Amazed the Crown has not implicated the father.
@ Peter. What you are saying, is that it doesn’t really matter what the mother was doing at the time, the question must be, would a reasonable person have gone and done something else and allowed themselves to be distracted while their 13 month old baby is in the bath?
A 13 month old baby is a walking, almost talking baby.
Should the mother have even been brought to court then?
Acquitted Mum speaks up.
This Wellington taxi driver is charged with causing the death of his unborn child.
Both going about their daily lives and have suffered the death of a child, then suffer criminal prosecution.
Is this Police protection in the child industry becoming a little over zealous with these ‘criminal prosecutions.’
This is interesting; another baby bath-drowning case goes to court.
Story here.
#5 She shouldn’t be worried now. Precedent was set last week.
I disagree. We don’t yet know the gender of the deceased toddler.
The previous case was a 13month old boy.
Let’s await without prejudice, and see – if the latest infant is female – whether a different judgement is applied.
ABC News – Story here.
The time may have come where women will face a lower threshold of criminal liability with respect to their children.
It will be interesting to see how this case develops.