Skip to content

Appeal Court upholds aquittal of mom who gave birth, left baby in Walmart toilet

Saskatchewan’s highest court has upheld the acquittal of a woman who gave birth in a Walmart bathroom and left the newborn in a toilet.
Halkett
April Dawn Halkett

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s highest court has upheld the acquittal of a woman who gave birth in a Walmart bathroom and left the newborn in a toilet.

April Halkett was found not guilty of abandoning the baby who was born in 2007.

But the Crown disagreed and took the case to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

Halkett said at her trial that she didn’t know she was pregnant and left because she thought the child was dead.

Prosecutors argued before the Appeal Court that she should not have been acquitted because she didn’t intend to commit a crime.

But the court said it accepted the findings of the trial judge, who believed Halkett when she said she didn’t think the baby was alive.