Girl, 4, drowns in mum’s bath
A GIRL of four drowned in a bath her mother had run for herself and then left unattended.
Summer Shaw had been bathed and tucked up for the night. Her mother Nicole Carr then topped up the water and went downstairs to make a phone call, believing Summer was safely in bed.
But the girl got up and went into the bathroom, an inquest heard yesterday. She added bubble bath and as she reached over for her toy ducks she slipped on a bath mat and fell in, probably banging her head as she did so.
Her mother found her lying face down in 15 inches of water a few minutes later, Doncaster coroner’s court heard.
The tragedy happened last December at the home in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, where Summer lived with her mother and father Carl Shaw, 24, a call centre adviser.
Miss Carr, a shop worker, said she had topped up the bath water for herself before speaking for about ten minutes to her mother and a friend on the phone. She told the inquest: ‘I had a sense that something was not right and went back upstairs to have a bath. I saw Summer’s toy dog on the floor. It was the one she had to ward off bad dreams.’
Breaking down in tears, Miss Carr added: ‘There was a bath mat which had been moved and the bath which I topped up hadn’t any bubbles in before – but now it was full of bubbles. I looked into the bath and saw her pink pyjamas and ducks in the bath.’
Paramedics arrived within ten minutes but Summer was pronounced dead at hospital. In a statement, her father said she liked to play with toy ducks and pretend to be a mermaid in the bath.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Coroner Nicola Mundy said it was the ‘most tragic of accidents’. She added: ‘She was an innocent girl simply wishing to play with her ducks and bubbles in the bath. Her mother believed she was safely tucked up in bed.’