Mother sobs in court after baby is injured

An Ayr mother of four sat sobbing as a court heard how she was so drunk she stumbled and dropped her baby daughter.

As a result, the five- week- old infant suffered a fractured skull.

And then the 31- year- old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, assaulted ambulance personal when they arrived at the holiday caravan at Southerness, preventing them giving assistance to the injured baby and police had to be called in before the child could be taken to Dumfries Infirmary.

In the court – at Dumfries – the mother constantly wiped tears from her eyes as the story was outlined by depute fiscal Lyndsay Hunter.

The mother admitted that having parental responsibility for the children aged six to five weeks, she exposed them in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering to health and drank excess alcohol while responsible for them, picked up the infant and dropped her onto the floor resulting in her striking her head.

She also admitted assaulting ambulance staff at the caravan on May 14.

The fiscal said the family had gone to Southerness for a break at short notice and the woman and her partner had decided to have a drink.

There had been a degree of concern by others at the complex about her condition, but they were aware that her partner was also there as they went back to the caravan.

The fiscal added: “He went to bed and at some stage she had the baby in her arms and stumbled and the baby fell onto the floor … fortunately it was a cushioned floor but the baby struck her head.”

She went on: “The mother behaved very badly towards ambulance personnel and police were called.

“The infant was taken to hospital and found to have a slight fracture of the skull but it appears there will be no lasting damage.”

Sheriff Brian Mohan called for background reports and deferred sentence for a month.