A Darwin mother has been found guilty of abducting her daughter Grace Hughes following a four-day trial in the Supreme Court. The disappearance of the five-year-old girl made national headlines in 2022. Laura Hinks pleaded not guilty to abduction and attempt to commit an offence, the jury taking less than two hours to return a guilty verdict on both charges.
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00:00Head down, surrounded by supporters, Laura Hinks allowed to walk free from court this
00:07afternoon despite being found guilty of abduction.
00:10Miss Hinks, how are you feeling about the outcome today?
00:14Laura Adele Hinks pleaded not guilty to kidnapping her five-year-old daughter Grace and attempting
00:19to abduct her 11-year-old son, Phoenix, during a supervised parental visit on August 7, 2022.
00:27The kidnapping sparking an almost two-week-long search by police.
00:32The children were in the care of their father at the time, Miss Hinks telling the court
00:35she feared for her children's safety and had raised those concerns with police in the months
00:40leading up to the incident.
00:42During cross-examination by Crown Prosecutor Ian Reid, Miss Hinks said she'd been failed
00:47by authorities and in her mind she was protecting her children.
00:51It was extreme and I suggest you knew it was completely unreasonable and it put your children
00:56at risk of emotional harm, yes?
00:59I was desperate.
01:00I didn't expect it to turn out like that.
01:03Miss Hinks' lawyer, Nicola McCarran, argued Miss Hinks' actions were reasonable in the
01:08circumstances as she perceived them.
01:10Miss Hinks believed they were not safe.
01:12It had been eight months of trying to keep them safe, eight months of living a mother's
01:17worst nightmare.
01:19The prosecution said they would not be pushing for a prison sentence for Miss Hinks, instead
01:24indicating they would be seeking an intensive community corrections order.
01:28Miss Hinks is set to remain on bail until the case returns to court in February.