A B.C. woman has pleaded guilty to one count of assault and will serve only one extra day in jail for having “unauthorized physical contact wiith infants” in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Surrey Memorial Hospital last fall.
Lindsey Hirtreiter pleaded guilty in Surrey provincial court on May 4 in connection with an incident in the fall of 2025. On Oct. 28, at around 6:55 a.m., during a shift change, Hirtreiter entered the NICU.
“The suspect then allegedly removed her shirt and made skin-to-skin contact with three infants. None of the infants were injured as a result of the interaction,” noted a Surrey Police news release from Nov. 28, 2025.
Dr. Marietta Van Den Berg, the hospital’s site medical director, said in a previous interview with the Surrey Now-Leader that it was believed Hirtreiter had “slipped” into the unit behind a group of people.
“Typically people are asked to identify themselves heading into the unit and parents are supposed to wear a wrist band but often take it off because they get discharged before the baby does.”
“But they do have to identify themselves and the name of their baby and what room they’re in, and if they are grandparents, or aunties and uncles, they have to have consent from the parents before they are allowed in, and obviously in this case the screening didn’t occur, and I don’t think anybody knew that it didn’t occur, because she sneaked in behind some other people and was actually in a baby room before anybody noticed, really.”
She said once the nurses realized what was going on, they pushed the alarm button, which brought security, and security called the police.
Hirtreiter was charged with three counts of assault on Dec. 1, 2025, in connection with the incident. On May 4, 2026, she entered a guilty plea at Surrey provincial court to one count of assault.
The court credited her with 150 days for time served in pre-sentence custody, leaving her with one day to serve in jail.
She was also given a two-year probation order that included “various protective conditions, including area restrictions,” said BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Damienne Darby. She was also exempt from paying a victim surcharge.
The Crown entered a stay of proceedings on the other two assault charges.
A stay of proceedings means that the Crown has dropped the charges but may restart the prosecution within a set timeframe: one year since the offence for serious charges and six months for less serious charges. “If the prosecution is not restarted within those time frames, the matter is over,” noted a post on gov.bc.ca about criminal decisions.
READ MORE: Surrey Memorial Hospital review on after woman ‘sneaked into’ neonatal unit
-With files from Tom Zytaruk