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An 18-month-old baby drowned after being abandoned by its mother in bush near Whangarei, a court was told yesterday.
Details of the police case against the woman, who has name suppression, emerged at a depositions hearing in Whangarei District Court.
She is charged with manslaughter, abandoning a child and burglary on or about March 7 this year.
Prosecutor Mike Smith said after being found in a house on Te Rongo Rd, Parua Bay, where she had spent the night, the woman took police into the bush and showed them where she left her baby.
The 18-month-old was not there, but found further upstream lying face down and dead in a pool of water.
Detective William Wilkinson said the woman identified where she had left the child as they started to head upstream, where he eventually spotted the baby. The hearing was expected to finish today.
- NZPA
