Members of a jury cried as they heard details about a three-month-old baby whose decomposing body was found in a shed.Her mother, Tamara Louise Thompson, has been accused of failing to provide proper sustenance and nourishment to her baby girl, Destiny, whose remains were discovered wearing a nappy and wrapped in a muslin cloth inside a cooler bag.
Police made the grim discovery in July 2015 – two months after Destiny had last been seen – in a shed in the backyard of her home in the Geraldton suburb of Waggrakine, Western Australia.
The West Australian Supreme Court heard yesterday that Thompson, 28, told people her pregnancy was unplanned and her baby was not wanted.
Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo told the court that Destiny “was not a planned or wanted baby.”
The court heard that Thompson lied about where Destiny was after she had died, telling some people she was with friends and others that she was in the care of the Department for Child Protection because she had post-natal depression.
Destiny, the youngest of six children to Thompson, was born six weeks premature and her father, Thompson’s meth dealer, wanted nothing to do with her.
Prosecutors say that Thompson's partner will testify that when the Destiny was about two months old, Thompson started "neglecting" Destiny, and "not feeding her as often as she should".
Ms Barbagallo said when police searched Thompson's home there were animals throughout the house, and animal faeces over the floors and beds.
She said that one month before her death her mother began selling her belonging, reports the ABC.
"Because she knew Destiny would never reach the age to wear them, or play with them, because she was intending to kill her," Ms Barbagallo said.
But Defence counsel Helen Prince said it was a tragedy and that Thompson did the best she could and loved her children.
She said her client was aware she was not a good mother, but moral blame was different to criminal guilt.
Ms Prince said that "tragedy struck one night" and Thompson found the baby "quiet and peaceful" in her cot.
She explains the fact the baby’s’ remains were found in a cooler bag as Thompson panicked concerned for a custody case she was involved in with two of her other children.
"She blamed herself and she believed she would be blamed by the system and lose custody of her two other daughters."
Ms Prince said that Thompson told police she had called her daughter Destiny for a very good reason.
"Because she was destined to be here," Thompson said.
The trial continues.
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This will go on and on and on until our government and laws put the rights of the child (the innocent) above that of the parent/ carer. At the moment the parent/ carers come first, getting chance after chance, benefit of doubt etc. children will keep dying. The system needs to be reformed and overhauled. The hard decisions need to be made, and everybody (in govt and law) is too scared to step up! These babies die because of a cycle that rehab and therapy won't fix - not without thousands and thousands of dollars per person anyway. Which can't be sustained. Do what you've always done and you'll get what you've always gotten. The parents have forfeited their rights as parents by abusing their children, the children need to be removed permanently and adopted out. Adoption services overhauled with child services. Once people know that the children they so desperately want won't be taken and given back to abusive homes, the influx of good solid loving parents putting their hands up for these poor kids will increase ten fold. Cycle potentially broken.
The child's name should have been the first warning.