Charges Dropped for Pregnant Mum Who Allegedly Abandoned Her Two Kids

Charges against a mother who was accused of leaving her two young kids home alone while she left for Bali have been dropped.

The 28-year-old mother, from the northeastern suburb of Cloverdale in Perth, who is also heavily pregnant, was believed to have left her four and six-year-old children home alone while she flew to Bali in June to renew her visa. Her husband was in the US at the time.

It was alleged that police discovered her two kids two days later and they were taken into state care.

The mother faced child neglect charges due to the incident.

However, on Wednesday, appearing alongside a Mandarin interpreter at Perth Magistrates Court, the mother was told the charges had been dropped after prosecutors liaised with the Department for Child Protection and Department of Immigration.

The court was told it was not in the public interest to pursue charges and it’s unlikely the woman would have received a custodial sentence for the offences.

The ABC reported that the mother’s lawyer Oliver Paxman, said if the case had proceeded, it could have taken a year or more to be finalised. “Given this lady’s got two young children, is heavily pregnant with a third child, to keep her in Australia for the sole purpose of conducting that prosecution would have cost the State and the Federal Government huge sums of money,” he said.

Mr Paxman clarified that the mother did not have a holiday in Bali.

“She did not leave the country to go and a have a holiday in Bali. I want to make that clear,” he said.

“It is an unfortunate set of facts, but she did not knowingly abandon her children for two days while she could go and have a holiday in Bali,” she said.

The children are currently still in care but they will be returned to their mother’s custody.

The children will have to leave the country on September 26 because they are not Australian citizens.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk and Abc.net.au