A NSW mother accused of injecting her sick daughter with urine and poisoning her with laxatives has sobbed as her police interview was played in court.
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The former nurse and midwife on Monday pleaded not guilty in the Newcastle District Court to three counts of using poison to endanger the life of her daughter between December 2013 and March 2015.
The 47-year-old denies giving her immune-deficient daughter a large amount of laxative agents in early 2014 and injecting urine into the then-nine-year-old's central venous catheter in March 2015.
The Crown alleges the girl became acutely unwell at Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney in March 2015, with blood cultures showing a "sudden, unexplained increase" in chemical waste products urea and creatinine.
Seated in the dock on Monday, the mother wept and looked at her husband as the court was shown her voluntary police interview recorded shortly after that incident.
In the interview she describes her daughter's constant hospital admissions between 2007 and 2015.
"She would get better with all the supportive methods and we would go home (and then she'd have) severe diarrhoea with oral medications," the mother told police in March 2015.
"I didn't know what to do other than keep presenting to the hospital."
The mother - who has multiple children - said that apart from one evening she'd rarely been outside her daughter's room during the two-week-long admission that March.
"I just had food brought in and I just stayed with her," she told police.
Crown prosecutor Wayne Creasey SC said police searched the mother's bag and found laxatives, a liquid-filled syringe, five used syringes, two urine sample containers, a stool sample container and other medical equipment.
He alleged tests of the syringes, containers and the girl's blood cultures showed similarities.
"The Crown case is the definitive link in those articles supports the contention that there was a deliberate introduction or administration of these microbes into the (central line)," the prosecutor said.
The mother denied giving her daughter laxatives or injecting urine saying she'd gathered the medical supplies when her child was transferred to Westmead from another hospital.
She told police she "missed being a nurse" and liked "being involved" in her daughter's care, the Crown said.
Paediatric gastroenterologist Scott Nightingale told the court he treated the girl in early 2014 when she was admitted for constant diarrhoea and vomiting.
After a series of tests, he concluded the diarrhoea was "factitious" and likely caused by a secretly administered laxative agent.
"I was quite confident this was what was happening - I couldn't think of an alternative," he told the court.
One test revealed melanosis coli, which is associated with chronic laxative use, while close monitoring during one admission showed the girl increased slightly in weight despite her stool output reaching three litres.
He suggested water had been added to stools, possibly to give the appearance stool output was "much worse than it actually was".
During cross-examination, Dr Nightingale stated he hadn't raised surreptitious laxative use with the accused or reported his suspicions any further than the girl's treating doctors and the hospital's child protection team.
The alleged victim is expected to give evidence later in the trial which continues before Judge Christopher Robison.
Australian Associated Press
