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An Australian influencer has been charged with poisoning her baby girl to elicit donations and boost online followers.<\/p>\n
The Queensland woman claimed she was chronicling her child’s battle with a terminal illness on social media, but detectives allege she was drugging the one-year-old and then filming her in “immense distress and pain”.<\/p>\n
Doctors had raised the alarm in October, when the baby was admitted to hospital suffering a serious medical episode.<\/p>\n
After months of investigation, the 34-year-old woman was charged with torture, administering poison, making child exploitation material and fraud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“[There are] no words for how repulsive offences of this nature are,” Queensland Police Det Insp Paul Dalton told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Between August and October, detectives say that the woman – from the Sunshine Coast region – gave the child several prescription and pharmacy medicines, without approval.<\/p>\n
She went to great lengths to obtain the unauthorised medications and cover up her behaviour, they alleged, including using leftover medicine for a different person in their house.<\/p>\n
Police began investigating on 15 October, when the baby was brought into hospital experiencing “severe emotional and physical distress and harm”. Tests for unauthorised medicines returned a positive result later in January, they said.<\/p>\n
The woman raised A$60,000 (\u00a330,500; $37,300) through GoFundMe donations – which the site is attempting to repay, Det Insp Dalton said.<\/p>\n
Police had investigated other people over the alleged abuse, but there was no evidence to charge anyone else, he added.<\/p>\n
The woman is due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n