The mother of a little girl who died from malnutrition has admitted to criminal neglect after spending three years pleading her innocence.
Charlie Nowland, 6, was found unresponsive at her family’s housing commission home in Munno Para, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, on July 15, 2022.
Her death was confirmed at Lyell McEwin Hospital with the cause ruled as malnutrition.
Police conducted an extensive investigation but no criminal charges were laid until April 2023 when Charlie’s mother, Crystal Leanne Hanley, was accused of neglect and manslaughter.
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 on Wednesday 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 housing commission home in Munno Para in July 2022
The court previously hear Charlie’s home (pictured) was ‘squalid’ and ‘uninhabitable for humans’
The court heard Hanley had neglected Charlie between April 1, 2022 and July 17, 2022 and committed an offence of criminal neglect where the child died as a result.
Hanley was initially released on bail after police charged her in 2023 but was taken back into custody earlier this 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 was jailed for stabbing her three times, 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.
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 mother, Crystal Leanne Hanley, spent three years protesting her innocence
It’s been almost three years since the death of Charlie Nowland shocked the nation
Charlie’s ashes were scattered at her favourite camping spot along the Murray River.
Outside the court on Wednesday, Charlie’s grandmother, Sandra Patrick, was relieved the case would not go to trial.
‘We’re glad it didn’t go to trial, because of the children,’ she told reporters.
‘They don’t need to go through that all over again. They’ve had enough trauma in their lives.
‘They don’t need anymore.’
Ms Patrick added she didn’t want to speak about her granddaughter yet as it would ‘bring up too many memories’.
She also hoped that Wednesday’s plea would allow Charlie’s siblings ‘to actually get some closure’.
Crystal Leanne Hanley (pictured) remains in custody
Hanley’s lawyer, Chris Kummerow, requested a lengthy adjournment ahead of her client’s sentencing submissions.
He claimed he would need the time to gather information about Hanley’s history as a domestic violence victim.
Hanley will remain in custody until her next hearing, set to be held in August.
