A mother in north Queensland, Australia, pleaded guilty to forging dozens of medical documents and endangering her young daughter. She was sentenced to two and a half years in jail but was granted immediate parole.
The mother’s fraudulent actions started in 2020 when she falsely told her husband that their daughter had multiple allergies. This led to an 11-month period during which she falsified the child’s health status.
She was found to have forged 104 medical documents, including doctors’ letters, medical certificates, and anaphylaxis plans, which she often submitted to her daughter’s school. The daughter, who was under 10 at the time, was said to have conditions such as seizures, diabetes, and speech disorders. The only actual conditions she had were lactose intolerance, celiac disease, and a slight macadamia nut sensitivity.
During this time, the girl was unnecessarily injected with an EpiPen more than 20 times by her mother and school staff, often resulting in hospital visits.
In a victim impact statement, the daughter described feeling scared, confused, and unhappy, and developed a fear of needles and doctors. The judge noted that the mother’s actions were a serious breach of trust.
The judge said that the mother had been in a highly anxious and agitated state at the time of the offense, “almost what you would see in a psychotic person where they have no groundings in reality.”
The mother accepted full responsibility for her actions and expressed remorse. The judge considered her mental state at the time of the offense as a factor that reduced her moral guilt, which was taken into account during sentencing.
