Australian influencer charged with poisoning baby for money (www.bbc.com)
from HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to world@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 12:06
https://sh.itjust.works/post/31183762

An Australian influencer has been charged with poisoning her baby girl to elicit donations and boost online followers.

The Queensland woman claimed she was chronicling her child’s battle with a terminal illness on social media, but detectives allege she was drugging the one-year-old and then filming her in “immense distress and pain”.

Doctors had raised the alarm in October, when the baby was admitted to hospital suffering a serious medical episode.

After months of investigation, the 34-year-old woman was charged with torture, administering poison, making child exploitation material and fraud.

#world

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Cris_Color@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 12:27 next collapse

Kinda sounds like Munchhausens by proxy, but it’s also very possible she’s just a disturbingly shitty human being in a normal way. Normal being a relative term.

0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Jan 13:20 next collapse

I have a hard time assigning guilt to people who commit truly heinous crimes like this. Like, your brain is obviously completely fucked if you’re poisoning your baby for internet points.

lauha@lemmy.one on 16 Jan 13:55 next collapse

It’s what money and power does to a person

0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Jan 14:27 collapse

I deeply disagree. I think most healthy parents would probably die for their kids. There’s no price that would make me consider poisoning a baby. Ultimately, the payoff was A$60k which is about $37k USD — not exactly a life changing amount.

rimu@piefed.social on 17 Jan 01:11 collapse

She probably expected to get much more than $60k. But anyway a sociopath would totally poison a baby for $0.

Feathercrown@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 14:35 collapse

Do not make the mistake of denying clear evil when you see it

0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Jan 14:48 collapse

To be clear, I’m not saying she should go free! She’s clearly a danger to others. I just don’t see any value in further punishment — if anything, she needs therapy and rehabilitation, if that’s even possible.

If you meant evil in a spiritual sense, then I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts on why classifying people or actions as evil is necessary.

Cypher@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 14:58 collapse

She hasn’t received any bloody punishment yet. She hasn’t even gone to court.

NABDad@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 17:26 collapse

Munchausen Syndrome by Internet Proxy

lando55@lemmy.world on 16 Jan 17:49 collapse

That’s simultaneously very clever and extremely disturbing

ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca on 16 Jan 12:27 collapse

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental health disorder in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person - typically their child.