Married couple plead guilty to kidnapping baby Montana

MELBOURNE - A married couple have pleaded guilty to kidnapping Melbourne baby Montana Barbaro last August.

Cheryl McEachran, 49, and her husband Mark, 44, appeared by video-link at the Victorian County Court where they each pleaded guilty to kidnapping, causing serious injury, and reckless conduct endangering life.

The couple kidnapped the then three-week-old baby from her mother Anita Ciancio at a shopping centre in Melbourne's west on August 7 last year.

The court had previously heard Mark McEachran punched Ms Ciancio in the face and sprayed her in the eyes with perfume while his wife grabbed Montana from her car-seat in the carpark of the Brimbank Central Shopping Centre in Deer Park.

After snatching the baby they drove to their home town Timor, near Maryborough, in central Victoria, switched cars and spent the night at a caravan park.

The couple then took the baby to Mark McEachran's sister's home and introduced her as their own newborn, Kia.

The baby's disappearance attracted widespread media coverage, with her parents both making emotional pleas for the kidnappers to return the baby unharmed.

The McEachrans cut Montana's hair before leaving her in an abandoned derelict house two days after kidnapping her and she was found by a jogger who heard her crying from the street.

An earlier hearing was told the baby was left on her back on a concrete floor in a room that had no glass in the windows and rubbish all over the floor.

The court previously heard Cheryl McEachran, who cared for six children, had a deep-seated desire to have more children and had been trying unsuccessfully to foster another child for two years.

She was also hit hard by the experience of having her own baby taken from her after giving birth when she was 12, the court had heard.

However, police have alleged she was a welfare cheat and snatched Montana to claim more social security payments.

The pair were today remanded in custody to appear before the County Court for a pre-sentence hearing on July 12.

- AAP