Carer jailed over death of cancer victim and former partner
The carer of a man who was found by health workers covered in his own faeces and lice has been jailed.
Libby Jade Baker has been handed a three-year non-parole period for the manslaughter of Johnathan Young, her former partner, with the possibility of an additional two years.
But her lawyers launched an appeal on Friday moments after Judge Deborah Sweeney delivered the five-year sentence in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
Young was diagnosed with terminal rectal and renal cancer in April 2012. He had already suffered multiple strokes leaving him unable to care for himself and forced to rely on Baker.
Unfit to undergo treatment, Young was prescribed palliative care.
Baker was found guilty in 2021 of the manslaughter of Young, whose condition shocked health staff when he was admitted to hospital days before he died in October 2012.
Young was found at home by a health care worker covered in his own faeces and with various untreated wounds. She had Young sent to hospital.
At hospital nurses also discovered Young was riddled with lice, including his armpits, and wounds in such severe necrosis that one had eaten down to the dying man’s bones.
Young was described as severely malnourished despite having a good appetite upon admission to hospital. He had not been cleaned or fed properly for weeks.
Judge Sweeney found Baker’s then-present heroin addiction, brought on by the traumatic death of her mother in 2010, had contributed to her neglect of Young.
But she also said a mental health analysis of Baker showed she failed to appreciate Young’s care needs, thus not demonstrating a genuine remorse and indicating the offender’s continuous desire to excuse her actions.
“Mr Young had been the subject of protracted neglect,” Judge Sweeney said.
“It was not difficult to care for Mr Young.”
The judge pointed out Young’s son, then aged nine, would have witnessed his father “deteriorate into the pitiful condition”.
Baker had sought a permanent stay of her sentence following years of delays in her trial, but was unsuccessful.
