A Sydney mother has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her seven-year-old son after admitting he did not fall off a pogo stick as first claimed, but was subject to months of neglect and sickening physical abuse at the hands of herself and her boyfriend.
The 27-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a string of other charges in Central Local Court on Tuesday via video link from Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre.
A statement of facts tendered to the court said the woman had been a responsible and attentive mother until she began a relationship with a Christian hip-hop music producer, who also cannot be named for legal reasons.
She adopted his "extreme religious views and became influenced by him, particularly his parenting philosophy," the facts say.
That man has been charged with murder and is scheduled to be arraigned in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Paramedics discovered the dead boy inside a recording studio leased by her partner in Sydney's south on May 21, 2013.
A post-mortem examination found the boy had a "plethora of injuries" including a fractured skull, several fractured ribs and bruising consistent with repeated physical abuse.
Police said the mother failed to seek medical help after the boy was seriously injured the previous day, despite him being unresponsive and failing to improve over a number of hours.
The couple originally told paramedics and police the boy had fallen off a pogo stick and hit his head. Months later, the woman admitted to detectives her boyfriend instructed her to lie.
The court heard the woman and her three young children moved in with the man within a week of meeting him in January 2013.
He claimed he was a "General" in the "Army of the Helpers" who assisted single mothers and children and was her "saviour".
Police say her care of the children significantly diminished once she moved into the recording studio, which did not have a toilet or bathroom and was regularly filled with people smoking cannabis. She reduced contact with her family and the two eldest children stopped attending school.
The couple made the children use a bucket for a toilet and put them in nappies at night, despite all three being toilet trained, so they didn't have to use the communal toilets in the complex, in order to hide their presence. Their bedding was covered in faeces and urine.
The man instigated a punishment regime based on the concept of "Spartans and soldiers" from the action movie 300, which included "boot camp" style exercise and vicious beatings.
Special punishment was reserved for the seven-year-old boy who had a moderate intellectual disability and was described by his teacher as a timid, softly spoken child.
The man claimed the boy did not have a disability and the regime was designed to toughen him up.
He encouraged the boy and his younger siblings to say their maternal grandfather sexually abused them. Videos recorded by the couple of the man interrogating the children showed the children were confused by his suggestions of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Their descriptions of the games they played with their grandfather, including the "purple snake" game described innocent, child-friendly activities such as playing cards and musical instruments.
During the video the man said: "I don't care about these games. We're more interested in other games where he makes you play with his doodle". Later he says, "Jesus has got you to me buddy."
However, the woman came to believe the allegations, telling her mother and the childrens' teachers when asked why they had stopped attending school. Police say his attempt to elicit false allegations from the children was part of his strategy to isolate her.
In March 2013 the mother filmed a three-and-a-half minute assault of the boy by the man. In it, the man laughs while the boy is clearly in pain and distress.
At the end of March the couple and children moved to a campsite in Bulli Tourist Park. Other campers noticed the boy was being denied food and drink, was often left outside the family's tent for hours in the cold wearing only underwear and had numerous bruises.
On one occasion, a witness heard the man say, "stop crying, if you didn't wet yourself you wouldn't be out there".
The man told a friend who visited the camp site that the boy was "going commando-style" to make him strong and so he would grow into a man. He also said the boy had a shaved head because he wanted him to be like Neo in The Matrix.
The court heard in 2007 and 2010 the man was a leader at Camp WerX, a Christian camp for children and teenagers aimed at improving teenagers' attitudes. However, the methods used by the man against the boy and his siblings were vastly different to those at the camp, police said.
He repeatedly forced the boy to run along the beach. When he slowed or stopped, the man would belt him with a large stick.
Wounds the boy sustained on his bottom from being hit with a wooden plank became infected but the man told the woman not to seek medical help. Instead, she did an internet search for how to clean wounds and bought antiseptic and dressings from a chemist.
Following reports from other campers, police attended the campsite one evening. Officers looked at the boy using a torch but saw no injuries.
In a video the mother recorded on April 20, she explained the boy had wet his nappy and as punishment he was on a "bare minimum eating plan"
On April 30, with her boyfriend back in Sydney for a few days, she did an internet search for "Jesus rebukes the devil". She sent her boyfriend a message about her son that said: "The devil has attacked me twice… I don't feel safe with him here". She also said, "the devil knows your weaknesses and knew you'd leave your flock … the evil spirit is trying to take my family."
In May the mother and her children moved back into the studio. On the morning of May 21, she discovered his lifeless body. She rang triple-0 and said "my son was playing on a pogo stick and he's not moving".
While she performed CPR, the man removed evidence from the studio, including drug paraphernalia and the soiled bedding.
Blood staining and blood spatter matching the boy was found throughout the studio, police said.
Following a police investigation the woman was interviewed under caution in September 2014. She said she objected to her boyfriend's level of violence but he threatened to throw her out and she acquiesced because she loved him and was greatly influenced by him.
She admitted her son was punished for six hours on the night before his fatal injury, including being forced to squat against a wall and stand on a coffee tin for hours.
She said on the morning of May 20 she heard a thud before her boyfriend carried her son into the kitchen saying, "he fell and hit his head".
The boy's younger sibling allegedly told a relative that same morning the man had forced him to eat his own faeces and smacked his face when he vomited.
The woman said the boy was unresponsive and the man said he could test if he was "faking it" by putting a flame near his fingers. The boy eventually moved his hand.
She said her boyfriend kept asking her if they should call an ambulance but made it clear she should not seek help as the boy's other injuries would be obvious.
The court was told around midnight the woman's computer was used to access YouTube videos by evangelical preachers Gloria Copeland and Reinhard Bonnke.
In an interview with police on November 20, 2013, the man admitted the boy did not fall from a pogo stick but fell from an elevated position after being punished for "lying" about his grandfather's sexual abuse.
He told his girlfriend to lie to police because he was scared of being charged with murder.
On Tuesday the woman pleaded guilty to 13 charges including consenting to a child under 14 years in her care being used to produce child abuse material, possessing and distributing child abuse material, failing to provide for a child in danger of serious injury, manslaughter and reckless wounding. Charges of murder and child neglect were withdrawn.
The woman will face a sentencing hearing in the Supreme Court on May 8.
