A Taranaki woman facing a charge of preventing the rescue of her daughter, who later died, has today been jailed for property offences.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The woman, who cannot be named, appeared in the New Plymouth District Court via audio-visual link to face charges of burglary, theft and receiving.
The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to the charges.
The property offences occurred while she was on bail on a charge of trying to stop a person attempting to save her school-aged daughter's life last year.
Preventing a rescue carrys a maximum jail term of 10 years, the offence is alleged to have taken place on 25 June, 2017.
The child died two days later as the result of a suspected suicide and the matter is now with the coroner.
The woman also faces child neglect charges spanning six years from 2011 to 2017 and involve accusations that she failed to provide adequate care, food, shelter and protection to the child.
Her defence counsel Paul Keegan told the court that the dishonesty offences occurred while the woman was facing serious charges relating to her daughter and that she had been "dealing with serious drug issues".
Mr Keegan said since being remanded in custody the assistance the woman had received had been useful and would continue.
He said his client wanted a quick resolution to the property offences and he was hopeful of finding a resolution to the more serious charges later in the year.
Judge Barkle convicted and jailed the woman for four months for the dishonesty offences.
She is due to reappear on the charges of preventing the rescue of her daughter and child neglect, in December.
