Bail has been denied for the Montreal mother accused of abandoning her three-year-old daughter next to an Ontario highway in June.
The 34-year-old woman, whose name is under a publication ban to protect the child’s identity, sobbed and nodded as Quebec Superior Court Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud told her she will remain behind bars until further notice.
Following a week of deliberation after listening to two days of testimony last week, St-Arnaud read his decision at the Valleyfield courthouse Friday morning.
He then explained to the woman what’s to come before she left the courtroom in handcuffs.
She is set to undergo a 30-day evaluation at Montreal’s Pinel Institute, a psychiatric hospital, as ordered by the court to assess her criminal responsibility.
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Doctors will write a report on her mental state which will be presented when she returns to court on Aug. 8.
A publication ban was issued for any evidence heard during last week’s bail hearings, meaning neither the testimony heard in court nor the reasons for the judge’s decision can be reported.
The woman has been charged with unlawful abandonment of a child and criminal negligence causing bodily harm after leaving her three-year-old daughter on the side of a highway in the rural area of Casselman and St. Albert in eastern Ontario on June 15.
She reported her daughter missing shortly after at a business in Coteau-du-Lac, west of Montreal, and told police she had no memory of the previous six hours or the girl’s whereabouts.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) and volunteer search teams spent days combing roadsides and forests in southwestern Quebec before discovering the accused had travelled to Ontario.
In what authorities called a “near miracle,” the three-year-old girl was found alive and conscious on June 18 by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers who spotted her by drone.
Crown prosecutor ‘satisfied’ the accused is being kept detained
Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel said she was satisfied with the outcome of Friday’s hearing.
“The job of the crown is to make sure that the public is safe, so I’m proud that the judge looked at the (evidence) and decided to keep her detained,” she told reporters outside the courtroom.
Prévost-Gravel said the woman has the option to appeal the judge’s decision.
The woman’s lawyer said he would evaluate his client’s options.
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