Woman receives court order for leaving young children home alone

Thursday 01 November 2018

A woman has received a court order after leaving a young girl in charge of her four-year-old brother while she went to work for a few hours.

Tania Sofia Camacho De Jesus (30) pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court to exposing the two children to risk of harm by leaving them on their own.

The court heard that De Jesus has an arrangement with the father of the two children whereby they live together in order to take shared responsibility for their children but aren’t in a relationship.

When De Jesus was at work, the little boy - referred to as Master X (4) - would usually be looked after by a babysitter, while the young girl - Miss A (9) - would go to school. However, on the morning in question, the babysitter was “unable to look after the little boy” and the girl was off sick from school. 

The court was told that there was a “decision made to leave the nine-year-old looking after the four-year-old”, but that both children were believed to have been left for “only a couple of hours”.

The authorities were alerted to the situation after another of the children living with De Jesus told someone at school about it.

Pictured: The case was heard in the Magistrate's Court this week and resulted in De Jesus being issued with a Court order.

Nothing happened to the children while De Jesus was out of the house, but the charges were brought to reflect “the risk that was caused as a result of children being left."

Police legal advisor Sam Morris told the court that Children’s Services had inspected the house and spoken to the family and there were “no concerns… [the children] are looked after and cared for.” 

Relief Magistrate Sarah Fitz asked for De Jesus to speak with a Probation Officer to discuss her family’s needs. The officer confirmed that the family were receiving support from Children’s Services and that there was no need for Probation to get involved.

The Relief Magistrate then said she was “pleased” that other agencies were getting involved to support the family and then enforced a six month binding over order for good behaviour on De Jesus. This order means that if De Jesus commits any other offences within the next six months, the Magistrate's Court will have to take this matter into consideration as well which could mean a harsher sentence.