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After 13 hospital visits across three states, a mother who presented as a loving, worried parent now faces more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to the medical abuse of her two-year-old son.
Sarah Jayne Kelly, 30, told doctors at multiple hospitals in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia that her fourth child suffered from epilepsy and cerebral palsy over nearly a two-year period from 2021 to 2023.
Sarah Jayne Kelly, 30, was sentenced after lying about her children’s medical conditions.
On Wednesday, as she was being sentenced in Perth’s District Court, Judge Laurence Levy told the court Kelly took the child to the emergency claiming he was vomiting, had a head injury and was suffering seizures – but medical professionals could not find any evidence of the issues.
In 2022, however, the Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland prescribed the boy with anti-epileptic drugs, after Kelly went to the emergency department claiming her son was having chronic seizures.
She also requested a dietitian examine the boy, and he was later fitted with a nasogastric tube.
Three weeks later, Kelly was back in WA, where she grew up, and took her son to Perth Children’s Hospital where she told doctors he had five epileptic seizures and cerebral palsy, which was not true.
His anti-seizure medication was increased, and he continued to be fed through a tube.
Three days later, she took him to the emergency department at Bunbury Hospital, where she again falsely claimed the child was suffering from epilepsy and cerebral palsy.
Another three weeks later, she was at the emergency department at Esperance Hospital, claiming the boy had again suffered multiple seizures. As a result of that presentation, the boy was transported back to Perth Children’s Hospital, where he was admitted for a two-week stay.
During that visit, doctors began to question the two-year-old’s diagnoses.
Sarah Jayne Kelly and her husband Jacob with two of their four children.
Kelly was unable to supply videos of his seizures, and none of the medical staff witnessed an epileptic seizure themselves.
Levy also told the court that, during that stay in early 2023, staff attempted to feed the child normally after they “formed the view he did not need the nasogastric tube”, but Kelly obstructed them, withheld food from him and insisted he be fed through the tube.
“You threatened to take him from the hospital against medical advice,” Levy said.
The matter was raised with WA Police, who charged Kelly with “having care or control of a child engaged in conduct that was reckless and may have resulted in that child suffering”.
On Wednesday, the court heard Kelly told police she had anxiety about her children suffering illnesses and may have “over presented” to hospitals, believing they were ill.
Levy also said there was a likelihood Kelly had “similarly abused” another of her children after a fundraising page saw her receive $2000 in donations for falsely claiming one child had leukemia and a brain tumour.
By November 2023, Kelly had pleaded guilty to the charge but then fled WA with her husband and children, leading to charges of breaching bail.
She then provided a fake doctor’s letter to the court falsely claiming she was suffering from breast cancer and undergoing treatment.
Kelly was charged again with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
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During sentencing on Wednesday, Levy said that “to say that this has been a difficult and complicated matter is an understatement”.
The judge detailed the complexity of deciphering what the 30-year-old was being truthful about and what was a lie.
Kelly’s husband has also since been charged after he threatened to kill Levy during a prison call.
Multiple psychologists and psychiatrists assessed Kelly ahead of her sentencing, which at times saw her taken from prison to hospital after she claimed to have lost mobility in one half of her body, and that she was suffering from amnesia.
On Wednesday, Levy said the woman was suffering from factitious disorder imposed on another – formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy – during the period of offending against her son.
However, he said Kelly then turned the medical issues on to herself in a form of “malingering” to garner sympathy from the court as she faced sentencing.
“Ms Kelly has consistently lied for a very long time,” Levy said.
“The consequences are that it becomes more and more difficult to accept anything that she says unless it can be verified.
“That poses a real risk for the upbringing of her children in the future.”
The court was previously told there was a warrant out for the mother-of-four’s arrest in Queensland after she was hit with fraud charges and Levy told the court on Wednesday she was also now facing fraud and forgery charges in WA.
Levy sentenced Kelly to three years and nine months in prison, with eligibility for parole after serving half of her sentence, which was backdated to April this year.
She will be back in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday to face the fraud and forgery charges.
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