A Whanganui mother allegedly left her one-year-old child locked in a car in a public place overnight.
The 29-year-old appeared in the Whanganui District Court yesterday, charged with neglect. She applied for bail but did not enter a plea.
It is alleged the woman was by the locked car, intoxicated. Police took her away to prevent her driving, but it is claimed she did not tell them the baby was in the vehicle. The child is not said to have been harmed by the alleged incident.
A charging document states the woman failed to provide the necessities of life by leaving the child "in a vehicle untended overnight in a public place" and said this was "a major departure from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person".
Judge Lynne Harrison granted the woman bail and remanded her to January 18.
