For five hours on a scorching hot summer day, Kaija Millar left her 14-month-old baby boy in her car while she played bingo and the pokies.
The temperature peaked at 37.5C in Point Cook on January 15, 2020 and a smoke haze from bushfires across the state hung over the town in Melbourne’s southwest.
When Millar returned to her car shortly before 3pm she found him foaming at the mouth and convulsing.
She took the little boy inside and lied – claiming she had only been inside for two hours, that she had checked on him, left the windows down and the air conditioning on.
None of it was true.
Her little boy, who is now in the care of a family member, spent a significant period in intensive care and rehabilitation but has been left profoundly disabled as a result of his mother’s conduct.
He now has severe cerebral palsy and is blind, having also required dialysis to treat renal failure.
Transformed from the healthy little boy who had met all his developmental milestones on time, her son now has a significantly reduced quality of life and life expectancy.
“This was not a tragic accident, something unforeseen, unanticipated and unavoidable,” County Court Judge Felicity Hampel said on Thursday.
“Your son suffered these injuries because you left him unattended and uncared for in that hot, windows closed, locked car in an open air car park on a scorching day while you were inside for five hours.”
Millar pleaded guilty to negligently causing serious injury.
Judge Hampel said there were mitigating factors.
She said Millar, then 32, was a first time mother and the arrival of their son was a planned and much anticipated event for her and her husband.
But she said Millar felt her husband wasn’t sufficiently supportive and she had struggled with the demands of parenting.
“Even before this catastrophe some of your doctors had been describing you as overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood,” Judge Hampel said.
She said Millar had other deficits, including an IQ bordering on extremely low, but even so she knew she should not have left her baby in the car.
Judge Hampel acknowledged Millar was sorry for what happened and that the punishment of knowing she had caused her son’s profound disabilities was likely greater than anything she could ever impose.
But Millar continues to maintain some of the lies she told on the day and to minimise her behaviour.
She has been assessed as unlikely to re-offend and hopes to one day regain the care of her son.
Ultimately the judge found the need to denounce Millar’s actions and deter others meant she had to jail her.
Millar was sentenced to three years behind bars. She must serve at least 12 months before she’s eligible for parole.
