Neglectful UK mother jailed after seven-month-old son drowned in bath while she played games on her phone

A neglectful mother has been jailed for seven years after leaving her seven-month-old baby alone in a bath to drown while she played a video game on her phone.

Charlie Goodall fell over in an unstable bath seat and drowned because his mother Danielle Massey wasn’t there to pick him up.

The single mother, 31, lied by claiming she left the bathroom momentarily to get a towel from upstairs, suffered an asthma attack and may have fallen asleep while recovering on the sofa.

In reality, she was “active and awake” and playing a game on her mobile, oblivious to the fate of her baby.

Mr Justice Goss told Teesside Crown Court Massey didn’t intend to cause her son harm but said: “His tragic death is the consequence of your blatant disregard for the risk of death resulting from your negligent conduct that afternoon.”

The tragedy also raises serious questions about social services who ended a child protection plan for Charlie just six days before he died, believing he was safe to be cared for alone by Massey.

She had a history of neglect, having had two young children previously taken from her care after she left them alone in a hostel for 45 minutes while she went shopping.

Massey was a habitual cannabis user and had smoked a joint several hours earlier, but the judge said it was “impossible to be sure” if that had an affect on her when Charlie was left unsupervised in the bath.

A trial of issue was held to decide the factual basis for sentencing and the judge sided with the prosecution case after hearing her “implausible” evidence.

Mr Justice Goss said Massey “constructed” various ‘changing and inconsistent’ accounts to “conceal the truth.”

Charlie was recognised as being at risk from birth. He and Massey spent the first four months of his life in a local authority “mother and baby unit.”

She was taught how to safely give a baby a bath as part of the social services monitoring.

When they moved out to live independently, Charlie remained under the legally enforceable child protection plan.

But on 10 February 2022 this plan was formally ended. Prosecutor Richard Wright, KC, said he was “downgraded” to “child in need” status.

This meant there were no legal consequences for failing to cooperate with social workers and a “voluntary” arrangement was in place instead.

“Social services maintained contact with a view to tailing off contact so that the child was solely in the care of the parent,” he said.

Discussing this decision Martin Sharpe, defending, said Massey had been “effectively signed off’ by care professionals, adding: “This may have been a mistake but they came to that decision.”

The court heard on February 16 Massey, who worked in a pizza shop, decided to give Charlie a bath because he was dirty and had eaten chocolate.

During his bath she started playing on the app “Cooking Madness-Kitchen Frenzy” at 1.40pm and the game was in use until 2.06pm when she rang 999 after finding Charlie slumped over and lifeless in the bath.

His seat had overturned as the bath was curved and the suction pads had not attached properly.

She tearfully told the court on Tuesday how she started giving Charlie CPR and continued under the instructions of an operator until paramedics arrived.

Mr Wright said she was later arrested and told a police officer: “It’s all my fault. I have killed my baby.”

In her evidence she said she unpacked the bath seat and read the instructions that warned that babies should never be left unsupervised and be kept within arms reach.

After running the bath and putting Charlie in the seat she claimed she left “momentarily” after realising there was no towel.

She went upstairs to find a towel but they were all dirty and came back downstairs again.

Massey, a diagnosed asthmatic, told the court she was “breathless” from going up and down the stairs and used her inhaler. She said she may have fallen asleep when doing ‘breathing techniques’ to calm down.

After waking up she rushed into the bathroom to find Charlie had drowned.

Mr Justice Goss formally rejected this account after agreeing with Mr Wright who said Massey “took the decision to leave the bathroom to do other tasks including playing games on her mobile phone.”

Her house was in a “chaotic” and “extremely untidy and unclean state.”

“It was consistent with a general background of neglect,” said Mr Wright.

Mr Sharpe said Massey spent time in the care system as a child, had self-harmed and been the victim of domestic abuse.

She had suffered from post-natal depression and “misused substances as a coping mechanism,” he said.

Massey, of Chilton, Co Durham, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence and possession of cannabis. The mother-of-four was today jailed for seven years.