11 Feb 2015

Woman who stole baby sent to jail

6:55 pm on 11 February 2015

The young woman who kidnapped a baby from a South Auckland hospital has been jailed for 18 months.

Middlemore hospital

Middlemore Hospital Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

Manukau District Court judge Jonathan Moses accepted that 27-year-old Loni Marsh did not intend to hurt the five-day-old baby girl she took from the maternity ward at Middlemore last September.

The girl was found unharmed by police and reunited with her parents shortly after the incident.

Her lawyer Mane Allen said the mitigating factors were the early guilty plea and Marsh's personal circumstances, which are suppressed.

Details of Marsh's medical history are also suppressed.