KEY POINTS:
A drug-addled mother whose 18-month-old baby drowned after she deserted it in the bush could be out of prison in just 10 months.
Natasha Dawn Petersen, 31, was sentenced last week to two-and-a-half years prison for the manslaughter of her daughter Cheyenne Petersen, whom she abandoned in dense bush on March 7 this year while in a methamphetamine-induced psychosis.
Under current parole laws, Petersen - who has nine previous convictions largely for drug offences - will be eligible for release from prison after serving one-third of her sentence.
The Herald on Sunday was granted access to the case file by Justice David Baragwanath and police, who said they wanted the tragedy highlighted to warn people about the dangers of P. At sentencing in the High Court at Whangarei on Thursday, the Crown had argued for a prison sentence of at least five years on the grounds Petersen's offending was a "consequence of her voluntary consumption of drugs".
However, Petersen's defence counsel, Arthur Fairley, maintained Petersen had a "vulnerability" that made her susceptible to drug use. Petersen had endured a difficult childhood and had had "an unhappy life since then".
On March 7 she abandoned her baby in dense bush near Whangarei Heads after believing she was being chased by men with guns.
Cheyenne was found the following day face down in a shallow pond. A post-mortem found she had drowned.
Fairley said when Petersen abandoned Cheyenne she genuinely believed, in her hallucinatory state, that she was leaving her child in "a safe pair of hands" and "was not able to appreciate the moral wrongfulness of her actions". "There has not been a day gone past since that this child is not in the mind of the prisoner."
In sentencing, Justice Baragwanath said while Petersen's use of the drug P could not be used in defence or mitigation, he accepted the defendant had no idea at the time about the consequences of her actions. Without "the drug component" Petersen would never have dreamed of abandoning Cheyenne, Baragwanath said.
She had already spent three-and-a-half months in custody - and nearly six months on electronic bail, which Baragwanath maintained was equivalent to a full custodial sentence.
However, National's law and order spokesman, Simon Power, said while he did comment on specific cases he did not share the view that electronic bail was akin to a term of imprisonment. Electronic bail had been a "bit of a failure" as it had been applied to the wrong types of offenders.
He was also of the belief sentencing laws needed to be tougher for methamphetamine offences, and that P users should not receive discounted sentences because they were unaware of their actions when offending.
This is not the first time Petersen has neglected her children.
Child Youth and Family confirmed to the Herald on Sunday it had dealings with Petersen over Cheyenne's elder siblings, now 8 and 9.
Both children are now in the permanent care of their father.
