TOT DEATH DAD GUILTY
Mother has not guilty plea accepted after pair accused over 19-month-old daughter
A DAD has admitted child neglect following the death of his 19-month-old daughter five days before Christmas.
Tragic Kiera Conroy was found lying lifeless in a cot as her parents prepared to go out with her.
Dad Michael Conroy and the girl’s mum, Kirsty Boyle, had stayed up through the previous night watching TV.
They then slept for hours during the day, leaving the toddler alone in another room.
Kiera’s death in December 2017 was treated as unexplained. Now her dad, 27, has appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Court and admitted “wilfully causing or procuring her to be ill-treated, neglected and exposed in a manner likely to cause her unnecessary suffering or injury to health”.
In the three days before she died, Conroy, of Coatbridge, “failed to provide Kiera with adequate nourishment and fluids, left her alone and unattended for excessive periods of time and failed to provide suitable living conditions”.
He also admitted causing his daughter to be exposed to street Valium pills. Tablets were found within Kiera’s travel cot, though there was no suggestion she had taken any.
Boyle, 24, faced the same neglect charge as her partner, but had her not guilty plea accepted.
She found her daughter’s lifeless body at about 5pm on December 20 as the couple prepared to go to her dad’s house.
Boyle said she and Conroy had been up until 6.30am watching a box set on TV and playing games on their phones. She told police: “We were both shattered. We did an all nighter. It’s a bad habit.”
The couple fell asleep on the couch and didn’t wake until 3pm.
Boyle said she didn’t hear Kiera at that point and “assumed she was asleep”. Conroy claimed he had given his daughter milk when she woke up during the night and in the morning, but prosecutor Lauren Cole said police found no food or formula milk in the flat.
Conroy said Kiera “wasn’t too fond of milk and only took it to get to sleep”.
Boyle dialled 999 after finding Kiera “very white, with sick about her mouth”. Paramedics arrived to find Conroy performing CPR but nothing could be done to save the child. The couple were said to be “extremely distressed”.
Miss Cole told the court: “A police officer who attended said both Conroy and Boyle looked tired and worn out. The flat was in an extreme state of untidiness, with dirty nappies and rubbish lying around.”
Defence agent Paul Belardo said social workers have been “heavily involved” with Conroy and Boyle, who have another child living with them.
Sheriff Fergus Thomson deferred sentence until November for reports and Conroy had his bail continued.