May 04, 2010

Woman admits second breach of baby snatch sentence

A woman who admitted an attempt to snatch a baby from the St George?s Hospital maternity ward in December 2008 has now pleaded guilty to a second charge of failing to do the community work sentence she received.

Rachel Marie French, 22, got a sentence of 250 hours of community work on the charge of kidnapping at her Christchurch District Court sentencing on June 26 last year.

She was back in court in December to admit a charge of not doing the sentence and pleaded guilty in early January.

When she was sentenced, the court heard that she had got on with the hours and Judge Jane Farish imposed no additional hours but told her to keep on with the work because the hours still had to be completed. ? Finish your sentence and that will be the end of the matter,? said Judge Farish.

Now French has admitted a further breach of the community work in March, and has been remanded for sentence on June 28.

French was described as ?a very disturbed young woman? by Judge Raoul Neave when he sentenced her for attempting to take a two-day-old boy away from his mother. She had gone to the ward pretending to be a trainee midwife, but had been noticed and stopped before she could leave with the baby.

The court was told that her fantasy world involved her desire to have children.

When French pleaded guilty to the first breach charge in January, defence counsel Rebecca Keenan told the court that French had back problems and mental health issues that had prevented her from completing her community work.

She was given a further six weeks to get on with the sentence, with Judge Tony Couch noting that?had been complying with her sentence of intensive supervision, but was having a problem with the community work sentence because of ?personal difficulties?. She did make progress during those weeks, reporting to the work centre five times, so no additional hours were imposed.