Bath death mother admits manslaughter

A LEVIN woman looked to the skies and cried outside court minutes after admitting she killed her toddler.

In the High Court at Palmerston North yesterday, the woman pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter after neglecting her duty to provide the necessary care for her child.

The child, who had a history of having seizures, drowned in a bath in her home on October 25, 2012.

The

woman, who

has name suppression, had two knives on the stove, which she was preparing to use to take cannabis.

The child soiled its nappy, so the mother removed it and placed the child in the bath.

She then went outside to have a cigarette, where she talked to a friend and watched another child play for about 10 minutes.

When she went back to check on her child, it was dead.

Justice Ronald Young gave the woman her first strike warning under three strikes legislation, and remanded her until a future date for sentencing.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Matt Claridge said there were about two or three bath-related baby deaths a year.

‘‘The message is really simple, always maintain hand contact and never leave the bathroom.’’

Figures from Water Safety NZ show that eight people drowned in baths in 2012, and that 29 per cent of people who drowned at home were younger than four years old.

Childbirth educator Caroline Tranter said these types of deaths were horrific and unfortunate.

‘‘It’s something relatively simple to prevent. The important thing is a baby is never left unattended.’’

Parents should always maintain contact with a hand on the baby, particularly if they could not sit up by themselves.

It was important to take everything you needed into the bathroom, including towels, so you would not need to leave the room, Tranter said.

‘‘Also, be cautious of what goes in the bath, as in lotions and potions, which can make the bath or the child very slippery.’’

A campaign by Water Safety NZ and Plunket, in which parents are given a non-slip bath mat at Plunket’s Well Child five-month check-ups, has been running since 2010.

A month after the child drowned in Levin, a 13-month-old baby boy drowned in his Wellington home while his mother talked on the phone to her parents for more than eight minutes. The woman was acquitted on a charge of manslaughter in the High Court at Wellington last October.

A 29-year-old Auckland mother was jailed for two years and 10 months for the manslaughter of her 13-month-old baby son.

He drowned in his bath in November 2009 after being left alone for 15 minutes while his mother checked her Facebook account.

She was initially charged with murder but a jury in the High Court at Auckland convicted her on the lesser manslaughter charge in August 2010.

In March 2007, South Otago father Kevin Little was sentenced to a 17-year non-parole period for murdering his 7-month-old daughter Alyssa while having a bath with her at her mother’s Nelson home in March 2006.

Little had claimed he was holding his baby daughter on his hip and had slipped, knocking himself unconscious and dropping her into the water.