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Disturbing new details have surfaced in an Adelaide courtroom, revealing one of the most severe child neglect incidents ever recorded in South Australia.
The court was informed that Crystal Hanley, a 49-year-old mother from the Northern Suburbs with a meth addiction, ignored the worsening health of her six-year-old daughter, Charlie Nowland. Hanley reportedly continued using drugs and dismissed concerns about Charlie’s condition, even as her daughter lay dying in a filthy household.
In 2022, Charlie succumbed to extreme malnutrition. According to court testimony, she arrived at the hospital in a dire state, weighing just 18 kilograms, clad in a diaper, and suffering from a lice infestation.
Sergeant Haydn Evans, who was present at the scene, spoke of the profound and enduring impact of this tragic case.
“I can still smell the house,” he said.
“What happened to Charlie is an atrocity.”
Angela Dente quit her career as a nurse after trying to save Charlie’s life.
“My colleagues and I attempted washing her as the last thing we could do for her,” she said.
“It was in vain… (she had) baked on dirt on her hands and feet you couldn’t even scratch… off.”
Hanley sobbed as Charlie’s siblings delivered victim impact statements, with one saying, “I had to be a parent to Charlie because you weren’t”, while the other said “all you cared about was drugs when you should have cared about us.”
Neighbours had observed Charlie’s deteriorating health, noting that her legs became so swollen she was unable to walk.
However, Hanley joked about her daughter’s condition, saying, “she’s got cankles, she’s a dickhead and she won’t walk”.
Hanley wrote a letter to her children, apologising for failing them all as a mother, saying she wishes she could turn back time and will have to live with Charlie’s death for the rest of her life.
Prosecutors say Hanley knew about her daughter’s condition and did nothing.