A CENTRAL Coast mother has admitted to poisoning her two-year-old daughter with insulin, four years after the girl was repeatedly hospitalised.
The woman, who cannot be identified, had pleaded not guilty to wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and using poison to endanger life and was expected to face a three-week trial in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court this month focusing primarily on expert medical evidence.
But on Thursday, after days of negotiations, the woman pleaded guilty to a domestic violence-related poisoning charge after prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm charge.
The poison charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
The woman, who remains on bail, will face a sentence hearing in Sydney in December.
Police said in September, 2021, that detectives from the State Crime Command's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad had established a strike force after being notified the two-year-old girl had been hospitalised.
Police were told the girl was admitted to The Children's Hospital at Westmead on two occasions in August and September, 2020, after suspected poisoning.
The girl was treated and has since recovered.
Following extensive inquiries, detectives arrested the girl's mother at a home at Umina Beach on July 28, 2021.
The woman was initially charged with attempted murder and refused bail, but that charge was dropped and she was granted conditional bail in 2021.
