This archive report was first published on 18 July 2019.
On July 18, 2019, an Australian court handed down a 10-month prison term to Kenyan Esther Arunga in the murder case of her three-year-old son, Sinclair Timberlake, who died in 2014 due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen in their family home in Kallangur, Australia.
However, Justice Martin Burns immediately freed her on parole, citing her cultural beliefs and the significant impact the loss had on her life.
Arunga had pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact to manslaughter, admitting to lying to the police in an attempt to help her husband, Quincy Timberlake, avoid punishment.
Justice Burns acknowledged Arunga's shock and grief at the time of her son's death, stating, "You must be taken to have been in shock at the death of your son, at the times when you were interviewed... and further to be grieving at your loss," according to the Australian Associated Press.
