SYDNEY — A 30-year-old Sydney mother has been charged with the attempted murder of her newborn son who was allegedly abandoned in a roadside drain for five days before passers-by heard his cries, police said Monday. The week-old baby was in serious but stable condition in Sydney's Westmead Children's Hospital on Monday, a day after a group of cyclists found him in an 8-foot deep drain in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, police said in a statement.
His mother Saifale Nai faces a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted. Her lawyer did not apply for bail or enter a plea to the charge. Quakers Hill Police Inspector David Lagats said on Sunday the boy had no signs of physical injury, but was malnourished and dehydrated. Cyclists riding along a bicycle lane beside the highway heard the baby on Sunday morning. "We actually thought it was a kitten at first, but when we went down there we could hear exactly what it was — you could definitely tell it was a baby screaming," cyclist David Otte told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
