Baby-sale mum in prescription drug case
Liam Houlihan | September 20, 2009 12:00AM
A VICTORIAN who allegedly tried to sell her baby online has been charged with a string of offences relating to an alleged "hillbilly heroin" racket.
The 13 charges came after the Sunday Herald Sun exposed a $20,000 haul of thousands of prescription pills netted in a one-person sweep of suburban pharmacies.
Petra Williams has been charged with theft and multiple counts of making and using false documents and obtaining property by deception.
Sources said Ms Williams was expected to be charged with up to 70 more "chemist crawling" offences.
Ms Williams first came to public attention for trying to sell her baby on the internet in 2002.
She allegedly wanted $10,000 from an American couple for her unborn child.
But she backed out of the deal the moment her daughter was born.
The American couple said at the time they had already decided to name the baby "Joey" for her Australian roots.
Ms Williams' husband discovered her plans while looking on their home computer.
She said at the time she did not feel guilt or shame, but later considered her daughter priceless.
The alleged pharmacy crawling spree came to light in May.
The haul was handed to the Sunday Herald Sun by a concerned reader and was passed on to the authorities.
Valued at $20,000 on the black market, the pills were allegedly bought at concession prices for little more than 1 per cent of that figure.
The alleged crime is believed to have involved forged prescriptions.
The drugs contained oxycodone and were intended for the relief of serious pain, including by cancer sufferers.
But drug addicts sometimes use the pills as a cheap substitute for heroin.
The packets are believed to have been bought in one person's name from pharmacies across Melbourne over 15 months in 2003-04.
The person hit pharmacies 32 times in one month and 34 times the following month.
The first pharmacies were in Frankston, Chelsea, Seaford, Aspendale, Patterson Lakes and Mordialloc.
The second were in Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Altona, Noble Park and Dandenong.
The person who gave the pills to the Sunday Herald Sun said police were not interested.
Ms Williams faces a mention hearing in the Werribee Magistrates' Court on November 18.
Herald Sun