Michelle Leask wanted to get help for her seven-week-old baby daughter when she found her in a ‘pale, limp and unresponsive’ state, but her abusive partner was scared paramedics would find his marijuana plants, scaring her into inaction.
Daily Mail reports the Queensland mother was 21 at the time, and she had noticed that her baby was having trouble breathing and unable to make eye contact. She wanted to call 000, but her partner was more concerned with hiding his cannabis plantation.
Her baby, named Lili Cataldo, died in hospital soon after in 2012.
Leask was sentenced to five years jail time after pleading guilty to manslaughter at the Brisbane Supreme Court, however Justice Martin Burns has suspended her jail time, due to impaired judgement from abuse she had suffered at the hands of her partner, Rick Cataldo.
“You told him your child was not breathing,” Justice Burns said.
“You wished to call an ambulance but again you were prevailed on by Cataldo not to do so because he was worried that a number of cannabis plants in his possession would be discovered.”
She took the baby to the hospital herself, but by the time she arrived it was too late.
“At no time until well after the child had died were you aware that she had been assaulted, or for that matter aware of the extent of the very serious injuries that had been inflicted on her,” Justice Burns said.
He added that if Lili had lived, she probably would have suffered brain damage because of the injuries she had sustained.
“At all relevant times… you were an especially vulnerable person and in fear of Cataldo,” Justice Burns told Leask.
“You were operating with substantially impaired judgment.”
Rick Cataldo is yet to be sentenced.
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