Kate Roughley is accused of manslaughter and child cruelty after baby Genevieve Meehan, nine months, was strapped face down to a bean bag at Tiny Toes Nursery, Stockport
Jurors had to watch the distressing moment a baby girl was discovered unresponsive at her nursery after she was allegedly strapped face down to a bean bag for more than 90 minutes.
Baby Genevieve Meehan died on May 9, 2022, after being left on the bean bag at Tiny Toes Nursery in Cheadle Hulme in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Nursery worker Kate Roughley, 37, is now on trial accused of manslaughter and child cruelty, after the court heard she swaddled the infant in a blanket and left her on her front, before fastening a strap across her back and covering her.
CCTV from the baby room – where nine-month-old Genevieve, known as Gigi, was left – was showed to jurors at Manchester Crown Court on Friday, capturing the horrifying moment Roughley realised she wasn’t breathing. The nursery worker came into the room one hour and 37 minutes after Gigi was left face down, placing her hand on the infant’s back and flipping her over.
She could then be heard saying, “S***, she’s not breathing”. A colleague replies: “What?” Roughley repeated: “She’s not breathing” and then hurriedly walked out of the room.
Jurors were then told the colleague unfastened the strap and unwrapped the blanket before a manager came over to check the youngster and carried her to a play mat. Four staff members then gathered, trying to revive Gigi, at one point calling her name and carrying out chest compressions until paramedics arrived.
Gigi, the trial heard earlier this week, was rushed to hospital but was tragically declared dead. Parents Katie Wheeler and John Meehan were called and both rushed to hospital where they learned their daughter wouldn’t survive.
Her cause of death was given as asphyxia (suffocation) and pathophysiological stress, prosecutor Peter Wright KC told the court earlier this week. Mr Wright said strapping and leaving a baby on her front had been an “obvious recipe for disaster”.
Because of Roughley’s actions, Mr Wright said, Gigi was left virtually immobilised between 1.35pm and 3.12pm that day, with her cries and distress ignored. Any level of interest in Genevieve’s wellbeing was sporadic and, at best, fleeting, the court was told.
Footage showed the youngster was brought into the nursery at 9.01am and some 34 minutes later was put to sleep by Roughley who swaddled her and placed her in a cot with an added blanket pulled over. About 10 minutes later the defendant is heard telling a colleague: “I was tidying up but then you came back in. I did it because I knew Genevieve was screaming but if you keep yourself busy you can’t hear her crying.”
As more crying and then coughing follows, the defendant then picks Genevieve out of the cot and puts her down on a play mat. Roughley is then heard to say “vile” before she turned in the direction of the youngster and said: “Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes.”
The defendant went on to use a tablet to take photographs of Genevieve playing – photographs which were often taken to send to parents, the court has heard. Within an hour, Roughley is seen clapping and singing “Oh Genevieve. Genevieve go home, Genevieve go home, go home Genevieve” as the youngster cries on the play mat.
Roughley went on to administer an inhaler to Genevieve, who weeks earlier was treated in hospital for a chest infection. Shortly before 1.30pm, Roughley tells a colleague: “She has been awake since half 10.”
The colleague responds: “She must be tired though, surely.” Roughley said: “Rather just put her on the bean bag, then I’m not wasting a cot. Cos if I put her in there she’s going to scream and wake (unnamed child) up.”
CCTV captured Genevieve raising her head and legs as well as wriggling on the bean bag as crying can be heard.
The tone of the crying further intensifies to a deeper grunting sound at 2.14pm as movement on the bean bag continues.
At 2.23pm, the crying stops and a minute later the final leg movements from Genevieve are seen. Thirteen minutes later, Roughley bends over Genevieve without touching her before she tells a colleague: “I couldn’t see her chest going up and down.”
She walks over to Genevieve again seven minutes later and says to her colleague: “I don’t want to move her cos that’s why she woke up last time …it’s a holey blanket so she should be alright.” Roughley, from Stockport, denies manslaughter and an alternative count of child cruelty.
