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An Australian mother admitted to neglecting her children so severely that one of them was hospitalized in appalling condition and later died from heart failure linked to malnutrition.

On Tuesday, Nov. 4, 49-year-old Crystal Hanley appeared before South Australia’s Supreme Court for a victim impact hearing after pleading guilty in May to the criminal neglect of three of her children, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Hanley had initially faced additional charges — two counts of criminal neglect and one of manslaughter — but prosecutors dropped those as part of a plea deal, ABC reported.

Her six-year-old daughter, Charlie Nowland, died on July 15, 2022, from cardiac failure associated with anemia and severe iron deficiency, prosecutors said. When paramedics arrived at the family’s Munno Para home, Charlie — who weighed just 18 kilograms (39 pounds) — was covered in lice and appeared extremely malnourished.

“In simple terms, she was so severely malnourished that her body essentially collapsed, and her heart gave way,” prosecutor Kos Lesses told the court, per ABC.

Lesses said that in recorded phone calls with Charlie’s father, Hanley showed “callous disregard” for her daughter’s worsening health.

Hanley is awaiting sentencing.

During Tuesday’s hearing, her surviving children — along with hospital and emergency workers — read emotional victim impact statements describing the devastating neglect Charlie endured. Before her death, Charlie had lost the ability to walk, but her mother failed to seek medical care, prosecutors said.

Hanley finally called emergency services around 1 a.m. on July 15, 2022, after Charlie fell “off the makeshift bed, which was apparently a bench, and she had stopped breathing,” Lesses recounted.

Emergency nurse Angela Dente testified that Charlie’s head, ears, and nose were “covered with lice eggs,” according to 7 News. Her hands and feet were so coated in dirt that hospital staff had to scrape it off.

“I kept looking at her little sweet face,” Dente said, adding that what she initially thought was dried vomit in the child’s hair “was in fact a head full of lice eggs.”

Hanley’s other children condemned their mother’s neglect in their statements.
“I had to be a parent to Charlie because you weren’t,” one child said. “You were selfish. All you cared about was drugs when you should have cared about us.”

In earlier court appearances, Hanley admitted her shortcomings. “I’m not a perfect mum, but I feed my kids,” she said, according to 7 News.