A Darwin mother has been found guilty of kidnapping her five-year-old daughter in 2022, following a four-day trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
It comes two years after Grace Hughes’s disappearance made national headlines and sparked an almost two-week long search by police.
Her mother, Laura Adele Hinks, pleaded not guilty to abducting her daughter and the attempted abduction of her 11-year-old son Phoenix, during a supervised parental visit in Berrimah on August 7, 2022.
During the trial, Hinks told the jury she held concerns for her children’s safety and wellbeing while in the care of their father and had made complaints to police and Territory Families in the months leading up to the incident.
Ian Read said Hinks avoided police after the abduction. (ABC News: Olivana Lathouris)
During cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Ian Read SC, Hinks said she had been “failed” by police and lawyers and was “desperate” to protect her children.
The 34-year-old said the only people who were helping her at the time were her co-accused, including Juliet Oldroyd.
Hinks said Ms Oldroyd suggested taking the children a week before the incident but denied there was ever a “plan” to abduct them.
Mr Read told the jury Hinks was “not interested in playing things by the law”.
“She and her conspiratorial friends took the law into their own hands,” he said.
Laura Hinks walked out of court with several people supporting her on Thursday. (ABC News: Olivana Lathouris)
When Mr Read put to Hinks “it was extreme, and I suggest you knew it was completely unreasonable and it put your children at risk of emotion harm — yes?”, the mother said she was “desperate”.
“I didn’t expect it to turn out like that,” Hinks said.
During his closing submissions, Mr Read said Hinks “had an opportunity to reflect” on her actions in the hours and days after the abduction, but had chosen instead to avoid police.
“It was a violent and traumatic taking of her children with no proper regard for their safety or emotional wellbeing,” he said.
Nicola MacCarron said Hinks was “living a mother’s worse nightmare”. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
Defence lawyer Nicola MacCarron argued Hinks’s actions were reasonable in the circumstances as she perceived them at the time.
“While going down the legal path is probably a better option she had tried that, she had seen three lawyers,” Ms MacCarron said.
“The legal system moves slowly, things don’t happen quickly, it’s not an easy system to navigate.
“All day every day, here is Ms Hinks, living a mother’s worst nightmare wondering what was happening to her children.”
It took the jury less than two hours to return a guilty verdict on both charges on Thursday afternoon.
The prosecution said they would not be pushing for a prison sentence and instead indicated they would be seeking an intensive community corrections order.
Hinks is set to remain on bail until the case returns to court in February.
