Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Mum of drowned boys to face Qld court
The mother of two young boys who drowned in Townsville’s Ross River, Leanne Eatts, is expected to face court after being charged with their manslaughter.
April 6, 2019
The mother of two young boys who drowned in a swollen river is expected to face a court in north Queensland.
Leanne Eatts, 47, was charged with manslaughter on Friday after the bodies of her sons Barak Austral, 5, and Jhulio Sariago, 3, were found submerged in Townsville’s Ross River.
The brothers wandered off from their home late in the afternoon on February 25.
Flooding had caused havoc in Townsville earlier in the month and the river was still high and dangerous.
Their bodies were discovered the following morning in a steep and deep cutaway of the river in Cranbrook.
On Friday, Detective Dave Miles said Ms Eatts was solely responsible for her sons’ preventable deaths on the day the boys wandered off alone and drowned.
“There is no way these boys should have been left the way they were, or … allowed to go down to the river,” he said.
“Certainly their deaths under appropriate parental supervision would have been averted.”
Det Miles said it was not an isolated event but a “systemic behaviour” by their mother and the lack of supervision.
Police are also investigating if drugs or alcohol were factors in the boys’ deaths.
Eatts will face Townsville Magistrate Court on Saturday on charges which also include drug trafficking charges including supplying dangerous drugs to a minor.
The supplying drugs to a minor charge is not related to the two boys.