Mum charged with trying to kill baby left in a drain

A 30-year-old Australian woman has been charged with trying to kill her newborn son by abandoning him in a roadside drain for five days before passers-by heard his cries.

The week-old baby was in serious but stable condition yesterday in Westmead Children’s Hospital a day after cyclists found him in a 2.5m (8ft) deep drain beside a motorway in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill, said police.

He was malnourished and dehydrated but had no apparent physical injury.