Mother Jailed After Infant Son Drowns in Bath

A mother has been sentenced to seven years in prison after her baby son drowned in the bath while she was engaged with a game on her mobile phone. Seven-month-old Charlie Goodall passed away after falling from an unstable bath seat when his mother, Danielle Massey, left him unattended “for a prolonged period” at their residence in County Durham. Teesside Crown Court heard that Charlie was discovered unresponsive in the bath when law enforcement officers were summoned to a house on West Chilton Terrace, Chilton, on February 16, 2022. Massey, 31, admitted guilt to manslaughter, stating she accepted responsibility for the bath seat not being properly secured. She also confessed to possessing cannabis and mentioned she had smoked a joint on the day Charlie died. She denied deliberately leaving Charlie unsupervised for an extended duration, telling the court she had gone from the ground-floor bathroom upstairs to retrieve a towel for him. Massey, who suffers from asthma, claimed she then returned downstairs and had to sit on the sofa to catch her breath before closing her eyes. She stated she entered the bathroom to find Charlie unresponsive and subsequently called 999. When questioned about digital evidence showing she had been using a cooking game application for 26 minutes during the period Charlie was alone, Massey asserted she was not actively playing the game at the time of his death, claiming it was merely running in the background. Following a Newton hearing, a judge rejected Massey’s account and sentenced her on the premise that she was “active and awake” while her son was drowning in another room. Mr Justice Goss stated that Massey had provided “various changing, inconsistent and implausible accounts” of the events to “try and conceal the truth.” He indicated that she “had not properly prepared for the bathing of Charlie” and was doing “what she wanted to do…confident in the belief Charlie was in his chair, in the bath.” “I reject her account of being exhausted and closing my eyes, I am sure she was active and awake,” he said. The court was informed that Massey and her son had lived in a mother and toddler unit for several months before returning home, and a child protection plan for Charlie, implemented by social services, had concluded days before his death. He had been moved to a plan one level down, a voluntary arrangement with social services, instead of one with legal ramifications for non-engagement, the judge was told. Prosecutor Richard Wright KC noted that Massey had completed at least one course in bathing and “understood the need to have towels ready” and not to leave an infant of Charlie’s age unsupervised for any length of time. The court heard that the seat used for Charlie was designed to be fixed to the bath with suction pads, but it could not be properly fitted in Massey’s bath due to its curvature. Mr Wright stated: “The court can be sure that the cause of Charlie’s death by drowning was not simply because the bath seat was not properly adhering to the basin, but because he was left in the bath seat… unsupervised over a prolonged period of time.” Martin Sharpe, representing Massey, commented: “It’s quite clear she did have a very strong bond with Charlie.” “She didn’t mean to cause harm to Charlie.” He informed the court: “She did lack organisation, she didn’t follow the instructions and should never have left Charlie unattended.”