Nursery worker found guilty of manslaughter

[LadyEloise1]

Such a dreadful case.
A nursery worker Kate Roughley, has been found guilty of manslaughter when a 9 month old baby, Genevieve in her care at a nursery died after being placed face down, tightly swaddled and strapped to a bean bag and covered with a blanket.
She left the obviously distressed baby girl in that position for 1 hour and 37 minutes.
Beyond horrific.
Where were the other adults at that nursery ?
How could they allow it to happen ?

The poor wee baby and her grieving parents.
How can they ever get over that

My daughter is a similar age.

What on earth possessed this wicked bitch.

What I read it was to ‘punish’ her. Punishing a nine month old baby?!

Why hasn’t she got murder? Also when there’s 100% evidence (as in couldn’t be miss justice) people like this should swing.

The poor parents. But also to mums putting their babies in childcare. It’s sad enough having to leave you babies, but with nightmares like this being true… I just feel sick.

Poor baby. I hope the parents are able to find closure.

I wondered that too.

To Genevieve's parents- words aren't enough to let you know how I sympathise with you.

Because positions like this don’t require care as a skill/personality trait.

I used to work as a carer. The only criteria was permission to work in the U.K. and a clean DBS. Everything else was desirable.

I have friends that live nearby to the nursery. The nursery was closed by Ofsted straight after and has never reopened. It's every parent's worst nightmare. She seems to have taken against this baby in the most horrific personalised way. Nasty evil bastard and her colleagues are no better for not intervening

It sounds like they had way too many children to staff, which should have been reported in the first place. I worked for a nursery and absolutely I would have reported this. Same if I saw a member of staff basically bullying a baby/child!

I also don’t understand how the other members of staff didn’t see this was happening and do something about it. Who shoves a baby face down on a flipping beanbag?

It's murder pure and simple. Putting a defenceless baby face down and leaving them that long. It's just so horrific 😢. Looking at my two beautiful boys I just don't know how someone could do that to a defenceless child. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy

Tiny Toes nursery was suspended by Ofsted, the regulator, the day after the little girl’s death. Four months later, an inspection found it had failed to meet its legal requirements and soon after the nursery’s owners, Franck and Karen Pelle, relinquished their licence.

Are bean bag chairs a normal thing to put a baby in? Never heard of them.

From https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/20/nursery-death-of-baby-genevieve-meehan-raises-troubling-questions

There were two members of staff for 11 babies (should be 3 babies max per staff member) 😢

Why was it manslaughter not murder?

Prison for life should be the sentence.

It's a terrible case. But I also think the nursery is culpable. Where was everyone else? Such a thing should never have been allowed to happen

I believe there were no other members of staff, at least on this occasion: she was left alone with ten babies.

Her actions were deplorable but she is far from the only one who should have faced trial.

Poor baby. Very distressing reading, and as well as her family and friends of course I feel for the jurors who I believe found it harrowing.

IANAL but it may be that the intent to kill is required for murder.

(If an eg industrial accident is caused by neglect, the charge can be corporate manslaughter but not corporate murder)

I imagine she felt comfortable doing that because it's more than likely she's been doing it to many other babies over the years.

I've visited a good number of nurseries over the years and a few stand out where the manager seemed to have compassion fatigue and a cold stand off demeanor towards children, I think many are not suited to a career in long term childcare tbh but I don't know what the answer is to stop crimes like this happening.

My heart breaks for poor little Genivieve and her unassuming parents, such a abhorrent betrayal.

The whole thing is just tragic. I can’t believe she only got done for manslaughter. It should be murder and life in prison. That poor, sweet innocent baby, suffocated. The parents trusted the staff to take care of their baby and they didn’t. I just can’t imagine the turmoil they are going through. My heart aches for the grieving parents and a life cut short at the hands of a monster.

Why was it usual to put a child on a beanbag with the use of a harness in a nursery? I've never heard of such a thing.

if the nursery didn’t care about staffing ratios, I doubt they cared about having enough cots

From the guardian comment piece, re beanbags

There are also questions about whether regulations should be tightened to explicitly ban the use of bean bags as sleep aids. These are widely available online despite being declared unsafe by the Lullaby Trust, a charity that promotes safe sleeping.
Strapping a swaddled child to any item would appear to be a blatant breach of the government’s guidance for early years sleeping arrangements, although there is no explicit ban on bean bags.

This is every parent's worst nightmare. I can't imagine what they are going through. The nursery should also be facing charges. It gives me chills thinking about this poor baby and other babies in their care being looked after by this monster and how they were likely bullied before the death of this poor baby. Babies who come from a loving environment only to be looked after by this monster is unforgivable.

There are bean bag like chairs available on the reccomendation of an OT for children with certain needs but there would be a risk assessment done before it was deemed a suitable aide.
I've not seen a typical bean bag with a harness before, the article doesn't discern the brand.

It should be illegal for babies in nursery to sleep anywhere other than a cot and under the safe sleep guidelines. This is just so upsetting; her poor parents must be absolutely haunted.

I'm not a fan of the death penalty but in this case, I'd make an exception. She should be put to death in the exact same way she murdered that poor baby!

For it to be murder I think there has to be an intention to kill. Her actions led to Genevieve's death but she didn't intend to kill her. I assume she has done it many times previously and perhaps it was common practice in that nursery.
Which is why I think others should also be tried for neglect

There was also a charge of child cruelty, which I assume is a “lesser” offence if the manslaughter had not resulted in a conviction.