Nursery manager caused baby girl's death, trial told

Kate Roughley denies manslaughter and an alternative count of child cruelty.

A nursery deputy manager caused the death of a baby girl who she placed face down, tightly swaddled and strapped to a bean bag for more than an hour and a half, a court has heard.

Kate Roughley, 37, is accused of the manslaughter by ill-treatment of nine-month-old Genevieve Meehan.

The baby was found unresponsive and blue on May 9 2022 in the afternoon at the Tiny Toes Nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport.

Staff and then paramedics attempted to revive her but she was pronounced dead later that day in hospital.

Ms Roughley, of Heaton Norris, Stockport, denies manslaughter and an alternative count of child cruelty.

Jurors were told that strapping a child to a bean bag on their front was an “obvious recipe for disaster” by prosecutor Peter Wright KC as the case opened at Manchester Crown Court.

‘Recipe for disaster’

This led to the death of Genevieve, known to her parents Katie Wheeler and John Meehan as Gigi, from a combination of asphyxia and pathophysiological stress, the court heard

Ms Wright said the reason for the baby’s decline was not fully realised at the time but became “much clearer” when CCTV within the baby room was later viewed.

The defendant, a qualified nursery nurse and early years practitioner with 17 years of experience, was the duty baby room leader and in charge of sleep arrangements on 9 May.

Mr Wright said she had put the baby down to sleep, and had swaddled her “so tightly that the child was effectively unable to move”, before placing her face down.

In a brief summary of the defence case, Sarah Elliott KC told jurors: “Genevieve’s death was a terrible and unavoidable accident and not caused by any acts of Kate Roughley that were unlawful.”

The prosecutor told the court the risk in wrapping a child of that age so tightly was “obvious”.

He told the jury that Genevieve had also been strapped front down onto the bag by means of a harness, which was “bound to restrict” her ability to move and breathe freely.

The infant was then covered in a blanket, and her “cries were ignored and she was left tightly swaddled, restrained and covered in this position”, Mr Wright added.

The prosecutor said Genevieve was left virtually immobilised and face down from 13:35 BST for an hour and 37 minutes.

“Any level of interest in her well-being was during this period, we say, sporadic and, at best, fleeting,” he said.

The defendant treated the baby in a way that “all sober and reasonable people would recognise was both dangerous and would, unless averted, subject Genevieve to the risk of some harm”, the prosecutor said.

The court heard the nurse manager had told a colleague “just ignore anyone if they start” in CCTV footage taken after she checked cots and left for her break at 13:44 BST.

Later, the blanket was moved from the baby’s head by the defendant, but Genevieve’s cries and efforts to breathe were ignored until she lay motionless, jurors heard.

The prosecutor said the defendant had appeared to “take against” the baby in the days prior, when she had strapped her in a similar position, and treated her without “any degree of tenderness or affection”.

She had referred to the child as a “stress head”, told her to “stop whinging” and to “go home”.

Her hostility to Genevieve was, we say, as illogical as it was disturbing”, the prosecutor said.

Ms Elliott said the defendant was devastated by the events at the nursery where she had worked since 18.

“In those 17 years Kate Roughley had never been in trouble. There were no complaints about her work, in fact quite the opposite.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues on Thursday.

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