In the months leading up to a seven-year-old boy’s death he was forced to wear his soiled underpants on his head, stand on a coffee tin for hours and undergo ‘‘boot-camp’’ style punishment.
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The horrifying details surrounding his death emerged on Tuesday when his mother pleaded guilty to a litany of charges, including manslaughter, reckless wounding in company and possessing and disseminating child abuse material.
In the months leading up to the boy’s May 2013 death he had been subjected to prolonged abuse, facts tendered to court state.
In March 2013, the boy was spotted by other campers in Bulli, being chased with a stick, forced to run along the beach in boot-camp style training and hit repeatedly with a spatula.
He seemed ‘‘skinny and undernourished’’ and his lips were cracked and swollen from dehydration, one witness reported.Concerned, they reported the abuse to police but officers said they saw no injuries when they visited the campsite in March.
In a video recorded by his mother just a month before his death, the boy is seen being subjected to a form of discipline featured in the 2010 film Karate Kid. For more than three minutes he is forced to repeatedly take his jacket off, put it on a chair and then put it back on.
Other punishments meted out included wearing his soiled underpants on his head, standing on a cake tin for hours and being hit by his younger siblings.
In the early morning of May 21, 2013, the facts state, the mother called Triple-0 and said ‘‘my son was playing on a pogo stick ... he fell over and I think he banged his head’’.
When emergency services arrived the boy was in rigor mortis.
An autopsy found he died from swelling on the brain caused by a large haemorrhage, of the kind treatable when medical assistance is sought. He also showed signs of older injuries, including broken ribs and fractures to his left foot and a finger.
The pogo stick explanation was ‘‘implausible’’, the facts assert.The mother is set to appear in the Supreme Court in May.AAP lcf/jca/jk31-03-15 1432
She also pleaded guilty to using a child in her care to produce abuse material.
The 27-year-old, who cannot be named, appeared at Central Local Court via AVL from Silverwater Correctional and was expressionless when the pleas were entered.The crown withdrew the charges of murder and neglect.
AAP
