Mum guilty of shaking her baby to death but avoids jail
A MOTHER was yesterday convicted of shaking her baby girl to death – but was told she will not be jailed.
A court heard hospital staff were horrified that social workers let premature Lily-Mai, born at 31 weeks, be taken out of professional care by her parents, despite alarm over mother Lauren Saint George’s behaviour.
Just six days after Lily-Mai was discharged from hospital at ten weeks old, she was rushed to an emergency ward with horrific injuries – including a fatal brain trauma, 18 rib fractures and a broken leg.
Prosecutor Sally O’Neill QC told the jury at London’s Old Bailey: ‘Lily-Mai’s death could almost definitely have been avoided if she had not been discharged into the care of two people woefully unsuited to caring for her.’
Haringey council social services chiefs – previously criticised over the deaths of Baby P in 2007 and Victoria Climbie in 2000 – last night said ‘how sorry we are that Lily-Mai did not receive the care and protection she deserved’.
While father Darren Hurrell was cleared of any crime, Saint George, 25, wept as she was convicted of infanticide – which can carry a life sentence.
Yet judge Mr Justice Spencer assured her he would not jail her, whatever a probation report says. Infanticide recognises a mother’s mind may be disturbed by a failure to recover from childbirth.
Judge Spencer said: ‘It is quite clear you were depressed, still suffering from the effects of the birth of Lily-Mai, at the time you committed the act which caused her death. The verdict of infanticide is one which traditionally has invoked sympathy rather than punishment.’
Saying Saint George had ‘suffered and continued to suffer’, he added: ‘The sentence will be a suspended sentence.’ Lily-Mai was born in November 2017 at north London’s Barnet Hospital – and nurses caring for her for two months were alarmed at the attitude shown by Saint George.
Both parents had been homeless for several years.
Four days after the baby was born, Saint George rejected an offer to visit her in the special care unit, saying: ‘No, I’m having my dinner.’
Saint George then told staff that she ‘hated’ the noises Lily-Mai made, wishing she would ‘cry instead of groaning’.
Enfield council social workers were asked to intervene, but after manager Alice Jack said the couple were not on their books and no further action was necessary, the case was handed to Haringey, where the pair had got a flat.
Haringey social worker Theresa Ferguson, who qualified just two years earlier, was given the case. But midwife Marie Creighton said the social worker had a ‘generally disinterested attitude’ when she first attended a meeting with concerned professionals.
‘She said she had been to Lauren and Darren’s flat and everything was fine and she didn’t understand why she was called into the meeting – “Why are we even discussing her?”’
Miss Creighton said Miss Ferguson did become more concerned as hospital staff spoke, and initiated steps towards intervening.
But in late January, it was decided Lily-Mai would go home with her parents. The day before her discharge from hospital, police were called to the parents’ flat over an alleged row.
Giving evidence, Miss Ferguson spoke of appealing to senior managers, saying: ‘I was really worried about her going home. I was told there was not a consideration for a placement and Lily-Mai would be returning home.’
Social services were said to have assured nurses they would visit the family daily – but failed to visit on three consecutive days out of her six at home.
Miss Ferguson made arrangements for a meeting which could have arranged for intervention, but then went on holiday. Miss O’Neill said: ‘To describe this timing as unfortunate is perhaps to understate the position.’
A duty social worker visited the family instead, until Miss Ferguson made a home visit when she returned to work at the end of January, when a health visitor
‘I was worried about her going home’
expressed ‘serious concerns’. The next day, Miss Ferguson told the couple either all three of them must stay in a residential centre – or the baby, who had developed pale and mottled skin, would be removed. The court heard that Saint George swore at the social worker, saying: ‘You want to take her, then take her.’
Miss Ferguson said she left confident that father Hurrell would look after the baby, telling him not to leave Lily-Mai alone with her mother. Five hours later, Saint George attacked her little girl in a fit of rage.
Hurrell dialled 999 for an ambulance, but told police he saw nothing. Saint George denied violence, telling officers her baby ‘bruises really easily’.
Hurrell, originally from Alvaston in Derby, was cleared of child cruelty, as was Saint George, of north London. The Metropolitan Police long claimed there was insufficient evidence to prosecute – only finally acting when a coroner ruled Lily-Mai had been unlawfully killed.
Haringey chief executive Andy Donald and council leader Peray Ahmet apologised last night, saying: ‘There are clearly lessons to be learned, and the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership has already commissioned a serious case review.’