An Australian influencer was arrested after being accused of poisoning her one-year-old baby girl to fake her illness and attract donations from social media users and followers.
The 34-year-old was charged with torture, administering poison, making child exploitation material and fraud, with police alleging that she filmed her daughter being in pain to attract donations and attention from social media followers.
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Red flags were raised by doctors
The one-year-old girl was admitted to the hospital back in October after having a serious medical episode, with doctors being the ones who raised the first red flags about the infant’s health condition.
The Queensland mother claimed she was only sharing her daughter’s health journey online but police think otherwise.
Police have looked into the case
Having been posting the photos of her daughter on social media, she claimed she was only updating them on the baby’s apparent battle with terminal illness.
Police are alleging that the mother had been filming her one-year-old while she was in “immense distress and pain.”
Detectives believe she drugged the baby
Following further investigation into the situation, detectives alleged that the 34-year-old mother was actually poisoning the infant with drugs to fake her illness for her financial gain.
She would allegedly elicit emotion from her followers, causing them to donate towards her baby’s apparent cause.
She was arrested on Thursday
After months of investigating the alleged poisoning, the Australian influencer was arrested in Logan City, just south of Brisbane on Thursday January the 16th.
The mother has been charged with torture, administering poison, making child exploitation material and committing fraud.
She had raised thousands on GoFundMe
The mother had raised A$60,000 ($37,300) in donations via GoFundMe after alleging her daughter suffered terminal illness and was in need of financial support.
“[There are] no words for how repulsive offences of this nature are,” Queensland Police Det Insp Paul Dalton told the BBC.
Investigations had begun in October
Police had started investigating the case on 15 October following reports by hospital doctors, with the baby being brought into the establishment experiencing “severe emotional and physical distress and harm.”
According to the detectives, tests for unauthorized medicines came back positive later in January.
Things could have escalated with the baby’s health
Queensland Police Det Insp Paul Dalton said that the infant is now “safe and doing well.”
However, she could have fallen “gravely ill” with serious health escalations that could have even caused her death if she had remained in her mother’s care.
Police say the woman tried to cover her tracks
Authorities have found that the women had given the infant multiple prescription and pharmacy medicines without approval for them between the months of August and October.
They also alleged she had gone to great measures to get ahold of the drugs and cover her tracks.
The mother was then arrested
Following the months-long investigation, the mother and social media influencer was arrested and charged.
“We believe that the person we have charged has administered these drugs, this poison, to increase that person’s social media profile … and therefore obtaining a financial benefit,” Insp Paul Dalton said.
The money is being repaid to her followers
The donations that were collected on the basis of fraud are in the process of being repaid to their donors by GoFundMe, according to Insp Dalton.
“We’ve been dealing with GoFundMe and I understand through my investigators that they are making attempts to repay that money to the people … who donated that money,” he said.
