Mother charged over abandoned newborn

A Samoan woman has appeared in an Auckland court charged with the assault and abandonment of her newborn baby daughter on board a flight to New Zealand.

The unemployed woman, a 29-year-old from Samatau in Samoa, was granted name suppression when she appeared in the Manukau District Court before Judge Gus Andree Wiltens yesterday.

The woman, wearing grey trackpants and a hooded zip-up sweatshirt, looked around the courtroom but appeared emotionless as she stood in the dock, her hands tucked into her sweatshirt pockets.

She faces two charges relating to how her baby daughter - whom she has named Grace - came to be found by airline staff in a rubbish bin on a plane after a Pacific Blue flight landed on March 19. Passengers had left the plane by the time the baby was found.

Judge Andree Wiltens remanded the woman in custody by consent until her appearance next month.

At an earlier press conference, more details of baby Grace's abandonment emerged, including the fact that she allegedly suffered a "minor injury" in an assault.

Detective Inspector Mark Gutry revealed that police believed the woman, who already has another young child in Samoa, knew she was pregnant.

"We don't believe this is a case of a surprise but we don't have an explanation at this point as to why it's occurred."

Mr Gutry said police charged the woman yesterday - soon after she was released from Middlemore Hospital, where she had received "significant medical treatment".

Questioned further on the assault charge, Mr Gutry said: "Both charges result out of the birth and abandonment but obviously I can't go into the facts because it will be before the court."

Although the case was sensitive, it was one that required judicial oversight, he said.

Mr Gutry said it was not known whether the woman was aware she was in labour when she boarded the plane.

No one else was aware she was in labour before the flight.

Asked whether people on the plane later knew the woman was in labour, Mr Gutry said: "We have spoken to people on the plane and certainly they've been able to provide us with information in relation to this matter, but again what they've said and what they've told us is something that's before the courts now."

The baby is in the care of Child, Youth and Family Services.

Police are not expecting to lay any further charges.