The lawyer for the mother of a three-year-old girl who was found earlier this week alone in an Ontario field said Friday that his client is unwell.
The mother appeared in court briefly while lawyers set a new date for her bail hearing and a judge authorized a publication ban on the case.
“We have a person here who is living with immense distress. This is someone who needs help,” said Olivier Béliveau, the lawyer.
The mother cannot be named due to a publication ban that now protects the identity of her daughter, the three-year-old who went missing last Sunday and was found three days later after an intensive search.
The mother was “extremely relieved” when news reached her that her daughter was safe, Béliveau said.
She has been charged with child abandonment, which carries a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison.
Defence lawyers intend to present a bail plan for the mother that would see her receive “support and get her help,” Béliveau added. He said the defence was not seeking a psychiatric evaluation, for now.
Lili Prévost-Gravel, the Crown prosecutor, said the prosecution remains opposed to the mother’s release on the grounds that it is not in the public interest.
“She can receive care in the infirmary of the detention centre. That’s a right she has as an inmate,” Prévost-Gravel said.
Prosecutors were continuing to analyze the evidence, she said. More charges could be brought against the mother in the future.
The toddler was found on Wednesday when an Ontario Provincial Police drone spotted her by the side of Highway 417, near St-Albert, Ont., about 150 kilometres west of Montreal.
It was the best-case-scenario end to a four-day search that had included up to 200 officers and trained volunteers, police on horseback, a helicopter and ATVs.
The girl had last been seen in Montreal’s LaSalle borough on Sunday morning.
Her mother reported her missing a few hours later at a store in Coteau-du-Lac, about 50 kilometres west of Montreal.
The case will return to court in July for a bail hearing.
