Emma Louise Morton (right) leaves court with a supporter after pleading guilty on Wednesday. Photo: Albert McKnight.
A former childcare director has admitted stealing more than $300,000 from her southern Canberra centre.
“Scum,” a supporter of Emma Louise Morton hissed at media taking her photograph when she was leaving the ACT Supreme Court after pleading guilty on Wednesday (14 May).
Morton was arrested in 2021 and eventually faced over 100 charges when she was committed to the Supreme Court in 2023.
On Wednesday, the court heard the matter had been listed for a trial from this June, but it had been resolved and there was a fresh indictment.
Morton, aged in her early 50s, pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining property by deception.
By her pleas, she admitted stealing almost $306,000 from Projects on Parkinson, which trades as the Weston Creek Children’s Centre, between March 2020 and February 2021.
Her lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith of Kamy Saeedi Law, asked for the court to order a pre-sentence report and an intensive corrections order (ICO) assessment.
An ICO is a community-based sentence.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum said sentencing would begin on 14 October.
Morton, who was seen wiping her eyes with a tissue while the lawyers were discussing the case in the courtroom, remains on bail.
It was not immediately clear what particular details she had pleaded guilty to in the case against her, but the Magistrates Court has previously heard she had been the director of the Weston Creek Children’s Centre for more than 20 years.
BTW if you watch the video (you don't read articles you comment on so I'd be surprised) he talks… View