An Australian lifestyle blogger will face a court after she was accused of injecting her daughter with urine.
The 'Mummy Blogger', who has thousands of followers online, stands accused of injecting her child with urine in her jugular vein in an attempt to cure her illness. She was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and using poison to endanger life by police in Newcastle, New South Wales.
Her daughter has a long history of medical problems and her ongoing health had formed a large part of the content of the blog.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made an appearance in court in Newcastle - which is two hours north of Sydney - and will return to face trial in two months' time.
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Staff at John Hunter Children's Hospital and Westmead's Children's Hospital in Newcastle had treated the nine-year-old on several occasions over a six-year period, for complaints including renal failure and bloodstream infections.
They raised concerns with each other and eventually held a meeting about the girl's welfare, which concluded that "the rapid growth of unusual organisms in both the urine and blood cultures... were highly suggestive of deliberate contamination of [the young girl's] central line by injection of urine," according to documents presented to the court.
Since being taken away from her mother, the girl has shown significant improvements in her health.
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"[The young girl's] progress has confirmed that the majority of her previous problematic medical issues were not the result of an underlying medical condition," said a statement that was shown to the court.
The girl's mother was first interviewed by police in 2015 and officers found five syringes and two containers of urine when they searched her handbag and a cooler box in her possession. The woman, who is 42 and comes from the town of Cessnock, 50 km inland from Newcastle.
Her daughter was well known for her illnesses, and have even been part of a fundraiser for sick children held at the Sydney Opera House. The mother was also a fundraiser, raising money for children's charities.
She wrote on her blog: "I wanted him [the doctor] to treat her. Do something. Anything. She was in pain and I could see she was becoming unwell."
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The post has since been taken down. It is thought that the woman is an example of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, where people hurt others in order to draw attention to themselves.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, Australia