The mother of a seven-month-old baby boy who drowned in the bath while she played games on her phone has been sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter.
Seven-month-old Charlie Goodall d!£d in February 2022 after he fell from his newly fitted seat inside the tub.
Mum Danielle Massey, 31, had put Charlie in the tub and said she left him unattended “briefly” as she fetched a clean towel – but prosecutors at Teesside Crown Court claim Massey ignored Charlie for up to 26 minutes while playing games and even “falling asleep”.
Massey called for help when she found Charlie unresponsive in the tub. He was airlifted from West Chilton Terrace, County Durham, to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
Charlie did not survive.
The court heard Massey was arrested and later told a police officer: “It’s all my fault. I k!lled my baby.”
Mr Justice Goss said: “(The defendant has given) various changing, inconsistent and implausible accounts of what happened in that interval to try and conceal the truth, which is that she had not properly prepared for the bathing of Charlie and was doing what she wanted to do, engaging in various activities on her phone including using a gaming app, confident in the belief Charlie was in his chair, in the bath.
“I reject her account of being exhausted and closing her eyes, I am sure she was active and awake.”
The mum has already admitted manslaughter and having possession of cannabis on the day Charlie d!£d but was on trial at Teesside Crown Court to contest the basis of her guilty plea.
Massey said her “gross negligence” is limited only to using an “unsuitable” bath seat – and not playing games on her phone.
Richard Wright KC said: “The prosecution case is that defendant left her child unattended for a long period so that he fell out of his unsafe bath seat and drowned which would not have happened if he had been properly supervised as he should have been at the time.
“The defence cast the issue of whether the Crown can prove that the defendant was playing a game on her phone for 26 minutes during which time her son drowned.”
Charlie’s father and Massey’s ex-partner, William Goodall, said he was at home when he got a phone call from Massey telling him to come over, where he saw his son being attended to by paramedics.
She also admitted to using cannabis at night times, when Charlie was asleep. On the day Charlie d!£d, the court heard her phone was alleged to have been open for 26 minutes during the period he was in the bath.
But when asked by her defence barrister Martin Sharpe if she was using her mobile in that time she said she was only bathing her son.
Referring to the bath seat he fell from, Massey told the court the equipment was brand new which she had fitted shortly before the incident.
Describing what unfolded, she said: “I went to pick up the towel but realised I didn’t have one in the bathroom so at that point that’s when I decided I had to go get a towel. I was only planning on going to the dining table.
“At that point, I left the bathroom thinking I was only going to be a minute. I realised I took all the towels upstairs because the cat had kittens so I ran upstairs to see if I could find any clean towels.”
Massey, who was diagnosed with asthma in 2013, said she then returned downstairs to the same floor as the bathroom having failed to find any fresh towels but needed to sit down on the sofa to catch her breath.
She continued: “I closed my eyes during the breathing techniques. I’m not 100% if I fell asleep, I was exhausted.”
Recalling what happened next, she said: “I walked in and I saw him laid there and I picked him up and started CPR.”
She said she carried on trying to resuscitate him until medics arrived. But at the scene, she told ambulance staff she had left Charlie to go make a bottle and not to get a towel.
When quizzed why by Mr Sharpe she replied: “My head was all over the place. I was an emotional wreck because I had no idea if my son was alive or de@d at this point.”
Mr Wright KC told Massey that phone records showed her opening three different apps including Cooking Madness at 13:40:19.
