Woman poisoned 1-year-old girl for months to exploit her for online donations: Police

LONDON -- A woman has been arrested after allegedly poisoning a 1-year-old girl over two months so she could post videos of the child online in order to solicit donations from the public, police said.

The Queensland Police in Australia said that the Morningside Child Protection and Investigation Unit (CPIU) has charged a woman with torture following "extensive investigations into allegations of an infant being poisoned," according to a statement released on Thursday.

"It will be alleged between August 6 to October 15, 2024, a 34-year-old Sunshine Coast woman administered several unauthorised prescription and pharmacy medicines to a one-year-old girl, who was known to her, without medical approval," authorities said. "It will be further alleged the woman, disregarding medical advice, went to lengths to obtain unauthorised medicines, including old medicines for a different person available in their home."

Further investigations into the case allegedly revealed that the woman "carefully concealed her continued efforts to administer the unauthorised medicines until the matter was detected and reported to police by medical staff from a hospital in Brisbane's south while the child was admitted."

When announcing the charges against the unnamed woman, police said that the child was subjected to "immense distress and pain" while the woman filmed and posted videos of the child online.

"It is alleged the content produced exploited the child and was used to entice monetary donations and online followers," police said.

Medical staff reported harm against the child to detectives on Oct. 15, 2024, which lead to police taking immediate action to protect the child during their investigation.

Testing for unauthorized medicines given to the child returned a positive result on Jan. 7, Australian authorities said.

"Morningside CPIU detectives travelled to an Underwood address to arrest the woman and subsequently charged her with five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one count each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud," police said.

She is expected to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court tomorrow on Friday. Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said offences of this nature are abhorrent and CPIU detectives are committed to protecting children from harm and holding offenders to account.

"Working in CPIU we are too often faced with the worst offences against children," he said. "We will do everything in our power to remove that child from harm's way and hold any offender to account. There is no excuse for harming a child, especially not a one-year-old infant who is reliant on others for care and survival."

The investigation is currently ongoing.