SYDNEY (AP) – A 30-year-old Sydney mother has been charged with the attempted murder of her newborn son who was allegedly abandoned in a roadside drain for five days before passers-by heard his cries, police said Monday.
The week-old baby was in serious but stable condition in Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital on Monday, a day after a group of cyclists found him in a 2.5-meter (8-foot) deep drain beside the M7 Motorway in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, police said in a statement.
His mother Saifale Nai, of Quakers Hill, did not appear in the Blacktown Local Court on Monday to answer the attempted murder charge. She faces a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Her lawyer did not apply for bail or enter a plea to the charge. The magistrate formally refused her bail.
Nai will remain in custody until she appears in the Penrith Local Court on Friday.