Email
A former Kenyan TV presenter has told Queensland police her young son died after her husband punched the child in the stomach to save him from alien embryos implanted in his body.
Esther Adongo Timberlake, 34, was granted bail in Brisbane magistrates court on Friday after being charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder of three-year-old Sinclair Timberlake.
Sinclair’s father, Quincy Timberlake, a former Kenyan presidential candidate, has been charged with his murder and is in custody.
Police prosecutor Sgt Scott Pearson objected to Esther Timberlake’s bail, saying she had given police several different accounts about what happened in mid-June, when her son was found dead in the family’s Kallangur home, north of Brisbane.
She did so to protect her husband, Pearson alleged.
Initially Timberlake, a former Kenyan TV presenter and lawyer, told police Sinclair had vomited and fallen down stairs.
But Pearson said she later sent police faxes that claimed her husband was mentally ill and she had seen him attempting to perform CPR on Sinclair by pumping his stomach with his fists.
“The father was stating to her that he was pumping poison from the deceased child and he was being chased by demons, soldiers and the parents of his wife wanting to kill him,” documents Pearson tendered to magistrate Michael Quinn read.
Both parents initially told police that a burn mark on their son’s face was from an iron that fell on him after he pulled it off a bench. They also said scars on the boy were the result of torture in Kenya and Dubai.
However, the mother later told police the injuries could have been caused by a healing technique called “coining”, which her husband – inexperienced in the technique – used to try to get rid of evil spirits that cause nightmares and disease.
Photographs of Sinclair arriving in Australia and medical evidence suggest the boy did not have the injuries before arriving in the country, Pearson said.
It was not until mid-July – 26 days after Sinclair’s death – that the mother told detectives she saw her husband punch her son in the stomach with enough force that “it would have taken a grown man down” before throwing the child against the wall, leaving dents in it.
“She stated the defendant was speaking as if he was attempting to save the deceased child from alien embryos planted in his stomach,” court documents allege.
Pearson said Timberlake told police her husband did not understand what was going on, claiming he had “saved the boy from aliens”.
Quinn granted bail to Timberlake, who recently changed her name to Chryslertte Provydence Timberlake, to reappear on 20 October. She is not allowed to contact her husband, apply for a passport or go to a point of international departure.
Outside court her lawyer, Chris Ford, said Timberlake was not concerned about how the news was being received in her home country.
“Her reputation in Kenya is neither here nor there,” he said. “The reality is her son is dead and she’s facing serious charges.”
;