KEY POINTS

  • The child fell asleep in her bolster seat in the back of her mother's car
  • The car was later parked on the driveway with the child locked inside
  • The couple have been charged with manslaughter

An Australian mother and her boyfriend have been charged with manslaughter after a 3-year-old girl died in a locked car while they were binge-watching a Netflix show.

Laura Black, 37, and her boyfriend, Aaron Hill, 29, have been charged with manslaughter for the death of Black's daughter Rylee Rose. The couple allegedly failed to realize that they had locked the child inside the car on a day when the temperature hit 32 degrees Celsius in Townsville, a northeastern city in Australia.

The couple parked the car on their driveway at around 9 a.m. Friday after dropping off Rose's three older sisters in school. It was only around 3 p.m. when they finally spotted the child slumped over in her booster seat in the back of the car, reported a news outlet News.com.au. The child was rushed to Townsville University Hospital but did not survive.

The prosecutor, Tasman Murphy, told the court that the couple had an argument on the way home from school drop-off while the child fell asleep in the car. They left her in the vehicle and returned home.

The couple was reportedly watching "Shameless," a popular show on Netflix, while the child died in the hot car. They only realized where the child was when they came back to the car for the afternoon school pickup.

child in car seat
Representational image pixabay

The couple, who recently started dating, moved in together two weeks before the incident. They spent the weekend behind bars and posted bail on Monday. They are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 24.

According to the police, the investigation is underway. They have ruled out the use of drugs or alcohol as a contributor to the incident.

Many people in Australia have come in support of Rose's grieving dad and her devastated sisters by setting up a GoFundMe page.

"Dear little Rylee Rose grew her angel wings on Friday 27th November 2020. She leaves behind her loving, devoted and devastated father Pete and her four older sisters. No one should experience a loss like this," the GoFundMe page reads.

Kid Safe, a child accident prevention foundation in Australia, estimates that approximately 5,000 children are rescued from cars every year. The temperature inside a parked car can be over 30 degrees hotter than outside even on a cool day. It is also estimated that 75% of the total temperature rise occurs within the first five minutes of locking the car.

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