Tuesday 08 April, 2008
The Dominion Post

A charge against a woman whose 11-month-old granddaughter drowned in her swimming pool has been dropped.

Bryleigh-Rose Northover drowned in the pool in Akina, Hastings, during Easter last year.

Charmaine Pullen, 41, was charged along with her landlords, Andrew Reed and Jo-Anne Hawkins, who pleaded guilty and were fined $250 and court costs of $130 each in Hastings District Court yesterday. Pullen was charged with having the pool full of water in an area that was not properly fenced.

Pullen, who lived with her daughter and granddaughter, was not home when Bryleigh-Rose, who had just learnt to walk, is believed to have wandered out of her mother's sight, out a side door of the house and through an open door to the fenced pool area.

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