A Winnipeg mother who left her child home alone in a locked room has been found not guilty of child abandonment.

The decision came down Friday afternoon in a Manitoba court.

The woman, who is not being named in order to protect the identity of the boy, was arrested in July 2013 after Child and Family Services investigators found out she had left her six-year-old son alone for 90 minutes while she ran errands.

The child's father -- who was in the midst of divorce proceedings with the mother -- saw her driving the streets of Winnipeg alone. He then called the home and the child answered the phone. The father quickly reported the situation to police, said CTV's Jill Macyshon.

When police arrived they found the boy eating pudding, doing art work and completing a puzzle.

Child abandonment, under the Criminal Code of Canada, is defined as doing anything to a child under 10 "so that its life is or is likely to be endangered or its health is or is likely to be permanently injured."

In Friday's decision, the judge said that was not the case in this circumstance, noting that the child was left in a well-kept home with no evident or immediate dangers.

"The judge said in this case the mother made a mistake, what she did was unacceptable but that she did not break the law," Macyshon told CTV News Channel.

"The judge cited a number of other cases where mothers and fathers had left their children alone thinking they were safe at the time and in all those cases the case law stated the parents in those cases were not found guilty."

Mike Law, the woman’s lawyer, said a finding of guilt would have been precedent setting because it would mean parents could be charged with child abandonment any time they left their children alone in a safe place.

He said "there was no evidence the child was in danger," unlike in cases where parents have left their children in hot cars or outside in winter weather.

A conviction for child abandonment carried a maximum sentence of five years.

Since the incident, the mother has lost custody of her son and he now lives with his father.