Australian woman charged with poisoning 1-year-old girl, posting videos for donations, police say

A woman in Australia has been arrested on allegations she gave a 1-year-old girl a variety of drugs to make her sick over a period of several months, then posted videos of the infant online for sympathy and donations, local police said.

The child was subjected to “immense distress and pain” for over two months, between August and October of last year, the Queensland Police Service said in a news release Thursday. The relationship between the 34-year-old woman, who police didn’t identify, and the girl wasn’t immediately clear. 

Police said that the woman “went to lengths to obtain” unauthorized medication, including “old medicines” for another person in their home, and that she “carefully concealed” her efforts to give the child that medication, including while inside a hospital in Brisbane where the child was hospitalized.

Hospital staff eventually discovered what the woman was doing and reported her to police last October, authorities said. On Jan. 7, tests performed on the child returned positive results for unauthorized medication, police said.

According to BBC News, Detective Inspector Paul Dalton told reporters the woman raised 60,000 Australian dollars, equivalent to about $37,000, through GoFundMe donations. 

She was arrested Thursday at her home in Morningside, a suburb of Brisbane, on five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one count each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud, police said.

Per BBC News, Dalton told reporters the child was now “safe and doing well,” and no one else was charged in the alleged abuse.