A mother who ‘chose to nourish her drug habit over her infant’ has been jailed for nine years over his death.
Natalie Jade Whitehead, 38, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday to manslaughter, failing to provide the necessities of life and negligent act causing harm.
She left two babies unattended for at least 21 hours while she took drugs, which led to the death of her eight-month-old son Dexter.
Dexter had been returned to his mother’s care just five days earlier.
Crown Prosecutor Matt LeGrand said Whitehead had left Dexter and another baby, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a cot together with one bottle between them some time after June 16, 2019.
‘She and the (alleged) co-defendant were taking drugs. They were not attending to the babies’ needs. That is evident in the malnutrition and nappy rash,’ Mr LeGrand said.
He said Dexter died after suffering the severe neglect of his most basic needs in the form of food and fluids.
‘The hours preceding death would have been extremely distressing both physically and emotionally,’ Mr LeGrand said.
When paramedics attended Whitehead’s home at Raceview in Ipswich, west of Brisbane on June 21, they found her holding Dexter and crying.
A mother who ‘chose to nourish her drug habit over her infant’ has been jailed for nine years over baby Dexter’s death. Dexter is pictured
Whitehead called triple-0 at 5.42pm and told the operator that her baby was ‘completely gone’.
The court heard she had ‘delayed calling police’ to frantically wash her son’s body and clean her ‘disgusting’ house in an ‘an obvious attempt to diminish (her) responsibility’, and was allegedly aided in this by her co-accused and then partner Andrew William Campbell.
The police found Whitehead’s unit to be in a ‘state of disarray’, with dog and cat faeces littered throughout and dirty nappies ‘everywhere’ near Dexter’s cot, the Courier-Mail reported.
Campbell allegedly dumped a bag in their neighbour’s bin, told them not to tell police, and then allegedly gave a bag containing drug paraphernalia to another neighbour.
‘You and Mr Campbell acted most deplorably in first trying to minimise the disgusting state of the house and changing the deceased child’s nappy,’ Judge Catherine Muir told Whitehead.
Dexter (pictured) died after suffering the severe neglect of his most basic needs in the form of food and fluids, the court heard
Campbell, who was living with Whitehead at the time, has been charged with manslaughter and is yet to enter a plea.
Mr LeGrand said Whitehead needed a sentence that would denounce her ‘abject failure’ to provide for her son and remind parents that taking illegal drugs left them unfit for their responsibilities.
Dexter was returned to Whitehead’s care just five days before his death.
The baby had been staying with his grandmother and aunt before that, and they said he was well-nourished and in good health when he was with them.
Defence barrister Joshua Fenton said Whitehead’s drug use had increased over the years as she entered a number of relationships where she was the victim of domestic violence.
Whitehead’s then-partner Andrew William Campbell (pictured) has been charged with manslaughter but is yet to enter a plea
He said she had experienced ‘quite severe’ domestic violence at Campbell’s hand following Dexter’s death.
Whitehead had also been devastated by the sudden loss of her husband in 2016.
She had started using methamphetamine before her husband’s death, but the tragedy caused her use more, Mr Fenton said.
‘There is some evidence of remorse. She was certainly distressed on the triple zero call and at the scene,’ Mr Fenton said.
Whitehead wiped away tears in the dock as Mr Fenton said she had shown symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder while in custody.
‘She has taken steps to address her somewhat limited life skills and drug offending,’ Mr Fenton said.
The court heard Whitehead has three other children, who she would probably have limited contact with in future as a result of her actions.
Judge Muir sentenced Whitehead to nine years’ imprisonment with her three years and nine months already spent in custody as time served.
Whitehead will be eligible for parole in June 2025.
Campbell is currently on bail, and his case is next listed for mention on December 2.
