A NSW woman accused of poisoning her son with faeces allegedly caused him to be sick for years.
The Blue Mountains mother-of-four, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces the prospect of up to 10 years in jail after she was charged last month with using poison to endanger a life.
She is accused of infecting the young boy with faecal matter via a cannula in 2014 when he was younger than 10 years old, and court documents allege she caused him to be seriously ill for a number of years.
The 35-year-old was due in Penrith Local Court as she applied to vary her bail conditions on Tuesday but did not appear after becoming “extremely distressed” by media reports of her arrest.
Defence barrister Stewart Cole provided medical certificates on his client’s behalf to support her non-attendance.
He argued for the removal of a bail condition that she report to Katoomba Police Station three times a week, telling Magistrate Ian McRae she did not have a criminal record, suffered onerous medical problems and was not a flight risk.
Mr Cole said that from what he knew, the Crown did not have a strong case.
The magistrate declined to remove the condition completely given the seriousness of the woman’s alleged crime but did alter it so she would only have to report to police once a week.
The court heard the mother does not have primary custody of her four children but still sees them in supervised visits.
Under the bail conditions imposed last month, however, she is no longer able to have any contact with the boy she allegedly infected.
The matter is scheduled for a mention at Penrith Local Court on July 25.