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An off-duty nurse found the abandoned baby and reported it to the authorities, after which Burton presented to a nearby hospital and relinquished care of the child.
Later that year, Burton’s 15-month-old son passed away from medical complications.
Between 2019 and 2021, Burton had two more children, before falling pregnant again in late 2021 with Baby Burton, who was not Balaam’s biological child.
In August 2022, the court heard Balaam became “suspicious that she was pregnant” and confronted her. He forced her to take a pregnancy test which she faked and sought no pre-natal care for the baby.
Two weeks later she gave birth at their Spalding home, north-east of Geraldton, while Balaam and her other children were asleep.
She gave birth on the couch and then moved to the bathroom, wrapping him in underwear and placing him in a garbage bag which was then hidden behind the couch in the family’s lounge room.
The court was told Balaam found Burton the next morning on the lounge unwell, telling him she had been throwing up all night.
“He found she was no longer bloated,” the court heard.
After telling her to have a shower, he saw blood on her legs and said he was going to take her to the hospital.
He called his mum to look after the couples’ children before taking her to the hospital that afternoon where she told doctors she was suffering from nausea and vomiting.
Doctors examined her and found signs of a recent pregnancy, but Burton repeatedly denied being pregnant or giving birth.
While she was at the hospital, the court was told, Balaam discovered the garbage bag with the baby inside but claimed he could not see what it was but could feel it was heavy.
He then wrapped it into another bag before putting it into a chest freezer.
“He never checked on the welfare of baby,” the court was told.
“He never told anyone about it initially.”
Burton, meanwhile, had been transferred to King Edward’s Memorial Hospital, telling Balaam it was because doctors had discovered a lump on her cervix.
Balaam remained in contact with Burton, the court was told, but they never discussed the pregnancy or the discovery of the baby.
Doctors then found a hormone in her blood which is only present during pregnancy and birth and she was repeatedly questioned about whether she had recently been pregnant and where the child was.
The court heard Burton “consistently denied” being pregnant, despite doctors telling her that treatments they might give her could make her more unwell if she had recently given birth.
On August 22, 2022, a friend of Burton’s set up a GoFundMe page on her behalf to try and raise funds to help with her fake medical condition which she claimed was terminal liver cancer.
The page, called Monique’s Medical Journey, included information sent by her while she was in hospital that stated that she was “receiving blood transfusions, dialysis”, that she was off the liver transplant list and had been given five years to live.
Later investigations found none of it to be true.
Burton also wrote that she had made attempts to go to Centrelink to receive financial support but had not been successful, also stating that her one wish was to “make memories” with her children while she still had “time left to do so”.
She received over $3000 in donations and on Thursday pleaded guilty to 12 counts of gaining benefit by fraud in relation to the scam.
A few days later, on August 25, medical staff spoke with Burton again, and she continued to deny the pregnancy, prompting them to instigate child protection inquiries.
“If I had been pregnant, I would’ve told you when you said the treatment you would give me, would make me worse,” Burton told them.
Medical staff then contacted Balaam over the phone, speaking to him with Burton present. He denied the pregnancy, denied noticing anything and didn’t disclose how he found the baby.
The staff member left the room to make inquiries before Balaam was then heard telling Burton she needed to “get her shit together”, adding that she needed to “tell the hospital about the baby” before hanging up the phone.
Burton then told the staff member, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Do you want to tell me something…is there a baby,” the woman then asked her.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Where is it?” the woman asked, before Burton told her it was in the freezer “on the back of the verandah.”
She told the woman the baby was stillborn.
Child protection and police were contacted, who went to the house and spoke with Balaam who told them he found the bag behind the couch and “suspected it was a baby”, before putting it in the freezer.
He told them he didn’t know what to do with the bag and said he wanted to wait for Burton to come home so she could deal with it.
Balaam was arrested that day and charged with one count of lawful excuse improperly interfered with a corpse.
He told police, “I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t want to see it, I put it in the freezer in case it was something like that.
“I didn’t want to believe it, I just freaked out in case it was.
“I thought it was the best thing to do, to put it in the freezer - what else could I do? I’ve never been in that position in my life.”
The court was told methamphetamine was found in the baby’s system and a paternity test revealed Balaam was not the baby’s father.
It wasn’t until January 2024 that Burton was arrested and interviewed by police where she told them that the baby wasn’t breathing when it was born, and that her recollection of what happened the night “gets fuzzy”.
She did claim she realised she was pregnant and said she could remember having contractions and her waters breaking and then giving birth.
She told police she was “half asleep and then woke up and thought ‘shit something’s happening’.”
She said she didn’t call out to her partner because she was “just watching it happen”, claiming it “felt like a dream”.
She then claimed there was no noise from the baby, but he looked normal, “like a doll” with his eyes closed.
She then told them she sat on the bathroom floor looking at the baby before getting into the shower where she fell asleep.
She admitted she did not attempt to resuscitate the baby and couldn’t recall why she didn’t get help, before putting him in the bag and then waking up feeling sick.
The court then heard that Baby Burton was conceived as the result of a one-off sexual encounter but denied this was the reason for the secrecy.
Balaam received a 12-month community-based order for his charges.
Burton will be sentenced on Friday.
