Mother, accused of abandoning her children, to be tried for manslaughter

A MOTHER accused of locking her children in the house, after which an inferno blazed through taking the life of her youngest, will stand trial at the High Court.

Last week Tuesday Tamara Lavia appeared at the Serious Offences Court and her lawyer Michelle Fife conducted the preliminary inquiry on her behalf.

The inquiry, looking into the evidence concerning the case, was done expeditiously by way of paper committal.

After the inquiry was finished, Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias announced that Lavia was committed to stand trial at the High Court.

She is charged with abandoning Simonique Lavia (18 months), she being a child under the age of two, and the manslaughter of Simrique Lavia (eight months).

Bail had been set at $45,000 at the Serious Offences Court, but this was reduced on appeal to the High Court to $30,000. Lavia has made bail and is currently free, awaiting the case’s progress through the court.

On the night of January 26, 2018, a fire ripped through the defendant’s New Montrose home, when four of her children, the oldest being six, were there. The youngest, her infant son, received burns to 90 per cent of his body and subsequently died. Reports were that the children were alone, and locked in the house, and that the source of the fire was a candle.