This archive report was first published on 17 July 2019.
On July 15, 2019, Australian court Justice Martin Burns heard Esther Arunga's guilty plea to being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter in the death of her three-year-old son.
Arunga had initially told Australian police that the child fell down the stairs, but an autopsy revealed severe blunt force trauma inconsistent with a fall.
She later admitted to finding Quincy Timberlake, her husband, hitting their son on the stomach in the bathroom on June 17, 2014, at their home in Kallangur, Brisbane.
Quincy Timberlake's mother, Rosemeg Wambita, has come to his defense, accusing Arunga of lying to protect her husband.
Appearing in an interview with Daily Nation, Ms. Wambita said, "That is a lie. I don’t understand what she means since she is the one who said that their son did not die at the hands of her husband."
Ms. Wambita questioned Arunga's motives, asking, "Where was she all this time? This is peculiar to me. It is a lie. I don’t understand it."
She also pointed out that if Timberlake was a murderer, Arunga would not have stayed with him for all the years they have been together.
Ms. Wambita expressed her desire to travel to Australia to see her son and establish the truth, saying, "I’ve not found an opportunity to talk to him since. In vain have I tried to reach out to well-wishers and my MP to help me travel to Australia for I want to know the truth."
Ms. Arunga is set to be sentenced on Thursday, July 18, 2019.
