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

If she had taken an action such as hitting or smothering the baby then it would have been a murder charge.

Her action was cruel and would certainly have a harmful intent, but I do not think that would amount to intent to kill.

Given the harness bean bags existed in the nursery, presumably they were used regularly so it was the placement face down, the swaddling, the blanket and the lack of checking that combined to cause death.

I don’t like it, but I think that would be the offence.

Well a lot of shaken babies die after being hit or smothered and their dads (its usually dads/step dads) eventually get convicted of manslaughter usually. Very rarely murder overall.

But having said that, I thought I read somewhere that you dont always need intent to kill to prove murder, cant remember the full details though.

“dont always need intent to kill to prove murder”

I’m not sure - but I think if you have intent to cause serious harm eg beating someone up badly and they die as a result of it, you can’t get out of murder by saying you didn’t mean them to die.

@greenredyellow Sadly the sort of caring jobs seen as 'women's work' like this are often very underpaid. Almost like saying, oh well they should be doing this almost for free anyway! It's very sexist.

I remember child minding 2 lovely pre-school boys when I was 17. And having the same argument with my 'step-dad' (he did nothing to deserve that name I can tell you). He said it's easy work, nothing to it, looking after children, that is why the pay is low.

Even at 17 I knew this was nonsense. There is nothing more important than cherishing children and helping them explore the world. So many facets to it from physical play to speech and language to emotional development and more.

Lots of people doing great work all day every day for a low wage. And a few that should be no where near a child.

I think it deserves much more respect as a profession.

Wtf was a beanbag doing there with straps? It was the nap room so cot, mat, travel cot all fine. Was the beanbag for older children to chill on?
Hard to understand how somebody could be so stupid as well as cruel.

Reading the news reports- Roughley “Had it in” for the sweet baby, strapping her to a bean bag where Genevieve’s desperate cries and struggles went unheeded.

Roughley bullied the tiny girl.

I personally don't think I could countenance leaving a 9-month old DC in the care of a stranger at that age. While I am sure there are plenty of nursery staff who are caring and good at their jobs, all it takes it one person to be having a bad day or them taking a dislike to your DC for horrific consequences to result. What made this case especially shocking was that Miss Roughley had 17 years of experience and was in charge of looking after the babies in this nursery. I have no idea how she lasted in the job for so long if she couldn't cope with a baby doing what lots of babies do. If it had been a teenage girl on minimum wage who had just started the job (and I know of staff working in some nurseries who fit that description) then maybe it wouldn't have been as much of a surprise. She was 35 and in a senior role with 17 years experience though.

Also I have to say Roughley shouldn't have been looking after 10 babies on her own. That doesn't justify her disgraceful actions, but it's simply too much of a workload for one person. The ratio was supposed to be one staff member for every three babies being cared for. The trial reporting has said that at one point there was one staff member looking after 16 babies, which is appalling. It wouldn't surprise me at all if understaffing at nurseries is a lot more common than people know. Just a terrible tragedy all round.

If you were literally trying to design a sleeping situation that gave the highest odds of inducing SUDI then that would be it. Swaddled, strapped down, face down, on a soft surface. Appalling. And the comments that it was done to punish the baby. She was only 9 months old, for pity's sake. What sort of sadist thinks babies that age could do anything to be punished for? I hope she goes down for a very long time.

AFAIK the punishment comments were made by the prosecution, whose job it is to make the case against her?

The CCTV is terrible though, and I assume means she knows it was never watched if no one ever spoke to her about the comments and attitude 😢

It was routinely used when the cots were full. The straps were to stop the babies falling off.

I wish I hadn't opened this thread. How heartbreaking.

How is this not murder?

This is difficult to read. It was hard to send my DD to daycare today knowing there are such cruel people in this world.

Absolutely disgusting and heartbreaking- she was a similar age to my youngest :( what absolute agony that poor family must be going through...the worst pain imaginable.
This lady looks quite the Bully... 'rough' is the word.Sadly having worked in a nursery and mistakenly enrolled my child in one with a 'bully boss' (took her out after afew weeks luckily) I've witnessed adults assert their power over young children way too many times.
And many of the staff under the manager are young and inexperienced and too passive to speak up.
I had to whistle-blow once as I witnessed a colleague get a similar age baby who was crying (who people used to speak pretty unkindly about as she cried alot) up from her nap and forcefully plonk her down on the floor.Luckily she left after that and hasn't had kids, but think she works with elderly people now :(
Sadly nursery work as a low paid caring role can unfortunately attract some people who are not fit for the role.

I personally don't think I could countenance leaving a 9-month old DC in the care of a stranger at that age. While I am sure there are plenty of nursery staff who are caring and good at their jobs, all it takes it one person to be having a bad day or them taking a dislike to your DC for horrific consequences to result

That is why we put our 10mo dd with a childminder...we know exactly who is looking after her at all times.Yes nurseries have keyworkers but they do not care for the babies all day every day....they have lunchbreaks, holidays, sickness, different shifts.
I don't think someone having a bad day would result in this kind of barbaric treatment though....they would have to be an incredibly vile and evil person to begin with.

It was locally known as an outstanding nursery.

It's in a very middle class / affluent area. Everyone I know loved it. Before this obviously.

This is right - you don’t have to intend to kill
someone for it to be murder, but there must be an intention for grievous bodily harm.

Either way, I have a child in nursery and I’m simply unable to imagine how poor Gigi’s parents feel. A harrowing story.

Absolutely shocking, a vulnerable beautiful and precious baby who could not speak up and defend herself from pure evil. It's heartbreaking. I will always regret sending my firstborn to one of those day care centres (they are NOT nurseries) even though I did change him to a childminder after a short while. They are not natural places for babies and small people and the government want to offer more funding so more babies and toddlers end up in day care. We'd have a better society if said funding went to the parents to look after their own children for another year and legislation brought in that a mother's job is protected for at least 2 years.

And once again, the parents clearly standing by her! How?!?!? Reminds me of the Lucy letby trial.
Clearly their in complete denial, brainwashed by her, or just as bloody nasty.

Just a word to some commentators, as awful as this situation is, you do not need to make anyone feel guilty for sending their DC to nursery/daycare/childminder.

Surprised it was only manslaughter. A part of me feels it was calculated from what I was reading about the patterns of her behaviour -particularly against this baby. I feel it was very conniving… she surely knew what she was doing, it feels like murder to me.

This makes me sick and I can't stop thinking about that poor baby.

I had a baby recently and really don't want to send her to nursery once mat leave finishes but don't see what other choice I have. She'll be 11months old but IMO that's still tiny and I keep wondering whether I should just become a SAHM.

Something about her - she looks so cold. Doesn’t look like the kind of person I’d want looking after my child. I dunno. It all feels off to me.

I would love it if I my job could be protected for 2 years! Even it meant the second year was unpaid. Honestly putting a baby that's not even a year old into nursery just seems far too soon for me personally