Criminal Child Neglect

There are four common forms of neglect that a child may suffer from at home. These include physical, educational, medical, and emotional or psychological. The most known is the physical form where the person that is to provide standard care neglects the basic needs of food, shelter, clothes and living conditions that are sanitary. Many that suffer from this form of neglect are children in foster care, in a home or when a parent abandons the youth. This can sometimes lead to criminal charges.

R v Thomas Sam; R v Manju Sam (No. 18) [2009] NSWSC 1003

This is a case where a couple whose baby daughter died after they treated her with homeopathic remedies instead of conventional medicine have been found guilty of manslaughter.

The couple’s infant daughter, Gloria developed eczema at four months but her parents did not seek specialist medical treatment. Her father, who practised and taught homeopathy preferred to treat her himself.

The court heard the couple took Gloria to various health professionals, but they abandoned each conventional medication she was prescribed within a short time of starting it as they solidly pursued homeopathic remedies.

The couple were raised and educated in India where homeopathy is accepted as equivalent to conventional medicine. They were steadfast to their homeopathic remedies and ignored completely or quickly discarded other treatment.

The Crown said these did not work, and all the while Gloria's tiny body required more nutrition than her mother's milk could provide, and her immune system became ever more depleted.

It was only after the nine-month-old developed an eye infection that her parents changed their minds and took her to the hospital. Gloria was immediately rushed into emergency to be treated by a team of medical experts. It turned out her cornea was melting.

By the time she died 3 days after she was hospitalised, she weights of an average three-month-old, her body was covered with angry blotches and her once black hair had turned completely white.

The couple were sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court after a jury found them guilty of manslaughter by criminal negligence. Jailing the father for at least six years and the mother for a minimum of four, Justice Peter Johnson said the child’s distress and the need for medical treatment would have been obvious. He continued to say that the parents' failure to seek proper medical care, subjecting Gloria to significant pain over an extended period, could be characterised as cruelty.

In Australia, children are protected. Health care members are obliged to report these cases if they suspect that a child is neglected. We came across many enquiries where parents asked us what amounts to criminal neglect. The actions are criminal when it is intended to cause harm. There is no definite answer as one will have to prove the state of mind of a person that there is an intention to cause harm.

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