A tragic case unfolded in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, where a mother shockingly admitted to neglecting her six-year-old daughter to the point of starvation. In a heartbreaking detail, she reportedly referred to the child as a ‘d***head’ for her inability to walk just before her death.
Young Charlie Nowland was discovered unresponsive in her family’s public housing at Munno Para on July 15, 2022. Despite efforts to save her, she was pronounced dead at Lyell McEwin Hospital. Her untimely death was attributed to malnutrition, which ultimately led to heart failure.
Following her passing, the case prompted an exhaustive investigation by the police. Initially, no charges were filed against the family. However, in April 2023, a significant development occurred when Charlie’s mother, Crystal Leanne Hanley, faced charges of neglect and manslaughter.
Throughout the legal proceedings, Hanley has maintained her innocence, asserting, “I’m not a perfect mum but I feed my kids.” She has remained steadfast in her belief that contesting the allegations aligns with what her daughter, Charlie, would have wanted.
Hanley spent the following two years vehemently denying she neglected her daughter, saying ‘I’m not a perfect mum but I feed my kids’.
She added that fighting the charges would be ‘what Charlie would have wanted’.
However, Hanley, 49, broke down in the South Australian Supreme Court in May as she pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal neglect, just one week before the case was due to go to trial.
As she sobbed, prosecutors accepted her guilty pleas and withdrew the manslaughter charge against her.
Charlie Nowland (pictured) was found unresponsive at her family’s home on July 15, 2022 aged six-years-old
Charlie’s mother, Crystal Leanne Hanley (pictured), pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal neglect in May
Court documents, released to The Advertiser on Sunday, showed the depth of the mother’s callousness through a series of phone calls in the two months before her death between Hanley and Charlie’s father, John Nowland, who was in prison.
On May 16, 2022, Hanley told Nowland that Charlie was sick and she needed to buy nappies for her because ‘she was being a baby’.
In another call on May 31, 2022, Charlie was heard crying in the background and said that ‘my legs are killing me’.
Hanley told her daughter, ‘Oh shut up’ before telling Nowland, ‘Charlie is in that mood today’.
On July 4, 2022, Hanley told Nowland that little Charlie hadn’t been walking for a week and a half.
‘She’s a d***head and she won’t walk. She’s got cankles and everything,’ Hanley said.
When Nowland asked if Hanley had taken Charlie to the doctor, the mother claimed she had – which was a lie.
The court previously heard Hanley had fatally neglected Charlie between April 1, 2022 and July 17, 2022.
Charlie and her siblings were found to be of poor hygiene and living in filth on the day of her death (pictured, the family’s home)
Charlie (pictured) weighed just 18kgs at the time of her death and was ‘so severely malnourished to the point where her body essentially collapsed, and her heart gave way’
Hanley was initially released on bail after police charged her in 2023, but was taken back into custody following several breaches involving drug use.
In earlier hearings, the prosecution alleged Hanley had raised Charlie in a ‘squalid’ home which was ‘uninhabitable for humans’.
Hanley previously claimed she’d asked Family Services for more support after her partner Nowland was jailed for stabbing her three times in the back of the neck, in front of Charlie.
Hanley had to learn how to walk again, suffered seizures and struggled to remember how to perform basic tasks like cook rice or drive a car.
During sentencing submissions last week, prosecutor Kos Lesses said Charlie had died from cardiac failure as she was ‘so severely malnourished to the point where her body essentially collapsed, and her heart gave way’.
‘The defendant repeatedly lied … about getting medical attention for Charlie,’ he said.
Charlie weighed just 18kgs at the time of her death.
‘Medical staff observed the deceased to be extremely pale, dishevelled, with lice infested hair, dirty skin and wearing a soiled nappy,’ court documents stated.
The court heard Hanley (left) had raised Charlie in a ‘squalid’ home which was ‘uninhabitable for humans’
All of hanley’s children were in poor health and living in a disgusting home (pictured) at the time of Charlie’s death
The six-year-old was never enrolled in school and her siblings had missed more than 80 per cent of schools days during the year of her death.
In a victim impact statement to the Supreme Court last week, one of Charlie’s sisters described their mother as selfish.
‘All you cared about was drugs, when you should have cared about us,’ she said.
On the same day Charlie died, Hanley’s other children were also found to be in poor hygiene, underweight and covered in lice.
Charlie’s funeral in August 2022 was funded by the South Australian government.
Her white coffin was decorated with the handprints of her siblings, paper red hearts and adorned with colourful flowers and a stuffed monkey.
Charlie’s father was denied day release for the service and watched via livestream from prison.
Charlie’s ashes were scattered at her favourite camping spot along the Murray River.
Hanley has not yet been sentenced and Justice Sandi McDonald adjourned the case for further submissions at a later date.
