Mother played on phone as unattended baby drowned in bath, court told

A mother accused of playing games on her phone while her baby drowned tearfully told a court how she found him lifeless in the bath after she left him alone.

Danielle Massey, 31, an habitual cannabis user and ‘avid gamer’, is said by the prosecution to have been fatally ‘distracted’ from her parental bathtime duties while playing a video game for 26 minutes. Both mother and baby were under the supervision of social services at the time.

She has admitted the manslaughter of her seven-month-old son Charlie Goodall in February 2022 but told a judge she left the bathroom to get Charlie a towel, suffered an asthma attack and could have fallen asleep on the sofa as she recovered her breath.

Massey admitted she has previously had other children taken from her care after leaving them unattended.

Both Massey and Charlie had been under the close supervision of social services, but six days before the baby’s death a decision was made for the ‘care plan to end’ as there were no ongoing issues, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Massey has also admitted cannabis possession and will be sentenced over the death of baby Charlie by Mr Justice Goss.

However, a trial of issue has been taking place for the judge to decide the correct facts of the case – which are contested – before passing sentence.

Prosecutor Richard Wright, KC, said Charlie had been on the child protection register over concerns for his welfare.

He said Massey admitted smoking cannabis several hours before the baby’s death but denied it had resulted in her falling asleep on the sofa.

The Crown has rejected Massey’s basis of plea, putting her gross negligence down to using an unsuitable and brand new bath seat.

He said: ‘The prosecution case is that defendant left her child unattended for a long period of time, so that he fell out of his unsafe bath seat and drowned which would not have happened if he had been properly supervised as he should have been at the time.’

Analysis of Massey’s phone showed she was using the game ‘Cooking Madness’ during the crucial bath period, said Mr Wright. Massey insisted the phone was unlocked and the game playing in the background while she dealt with her son.

Today Massey struggled to hold back tears as she gave evidence about Charlie’s death at home in Chilton, Co Durham.

Massey, a single mother who worked for a pizza shop, said she gave Charlie a bath at 1.40pm because he was dirty.

She said she used a new bath seat for the first time and set it up after reading the instructions – that included ‘always keep baby within arm's reach and never leave baby unattended.’

Massey said she left Charlie alone in the bath to get a towel, but initially couldn’t find a clean one. She said she ‘ran upstairs and ‘could hear Charlie playing in the bath’.

Massey said she found a bottle he used earlier and took it back downstairs. ‘I sat on the sofa as I needed to catch my breath, I needed my inhaler,’ she said.

The mother said she suffered an asthma attack. ‘I used my inhaler and was still struggling, so tried to calm my breathing down with breathing techniques.’

At this point the court heard she could have fallen asleep.

‘I closed my eyes during the breathing techniques and am not 100 per cent sure if I fell asleep,’ she said.

Massey said she ‘possibly’ fell asleep, commenting: ‘I was exhausted.’

Some time later, she ran into the bathroom.

‘I seen him laid on his side. I picked him up and started CPR.’

Massey rang 999 at 2.06pm and she said she continued CPR in the sitting room until paramedics arrived.

The mother was arrested by police and later gave a statement detailing how she ‘thought he was safe’ when she went to ‘fetch a towel.’ She added she returned to find Charlie ‘lying in the bath and his seat was overturned’.

The court heard she made no mention to her solicitor about having an asthma attack.

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Mr Wright said Massey made a revealing statement to a police officer following her arrest – ‘It’s all my fault. I have killed my son’ - and signed the officer’s pocket notebook to accept what she had said.

Questioned about her background, Massey said young children had been taken from her care previously after she left them unattended in a hostel while she went to the shops for 45 minutes.

After Charlie was born she spent three or four months with her newborn baby in a social services ‘mother and baby unit’. Before Charlie’s birth she had attended a bathing workshop to learn about bathing a baby.

Massey and Charlie moved into their own home in October 2021 and had about five visits from social services in the four months before his death, the court heard.

A decision was made on 10 February for Massey to be ‘signed off’ and she said the plan was to stop all supervision after a month. Charlie died on 16 February.

The court heard Massey smoked two or three cannabis joints an evening and regularly smoked a joint after giving Charlie his early morning feed.

Cross-examined by Mr Wright, she admitted she knew a baby shouldn’t be left unsupervised in a bath.

Massey denied ‘making up’ the asthma attack after the event.

Mr Wright also suggested she lied about turning off the auto-lock function on her iPhone as a way of explaining how the video game was operating without her for 26 minutes during bath time.

He asked her: ‘If you had been playing the game the phone wouldn’t have locked would it?’

She replied: ‘No.’

The case continues