Mother Jailed 5 Years As Son Drowns

[agchristie]

Very sad on a number of fronts. Given the known circumstances what do you think of the sentence?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-34491753

[mikey4444]

This is a very sad story but we cab only go on what the Judge has said.

"Passing sentence, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said Barnett's "lamentably appalling parenting led to fatal consequences".

He added: "If you should have any further children, they will almost certainly be removed from you.

"You pose very serious risks to any child for whom you have responsibility."

Damning words.

On the death in question, its hardly unusual for children to die in garden pools, and where I live its quite normal to see very young kids out playing, after dark and in the road.

[-Talbot-]

Although I despise parents who show little concern for the safety of their children, 5 years does seem harsh.
I could mention another case of serious neglect where rather than be jailed the parents gained celebrity status.

[ummmm]

Hard to know what to say. Just because she was neglectful that day doesn't mean she was neglectful on a daily basis.

Saying that I would NEVER leave a little one unattended around water.

I nearly drowned at the age of 3. I fell in a lake at a holiday park and my parents didn't realise until mum turned round and I wasn't there. So....it could happen to good parents too.

[naomi24]

I couldn't see mention of how old her children, and this child in particular. are? Have I missed it?

[-Talbot-]

Two, naomi

[Old_Geezer]

Despite the total lack of responsibility shown I do wonder if the sentence wasn't a bit tough, especially the comments about having further kids taken away. We learn from experience and there is no inevitability she'd ever be so lax again. Given she has to live with what she has done to (presumably) a loved son I'm unsure a custodial sentence was necessary.

[mikey4444]

Ummmm....the link seem to imply that this woman had been neglectful in the past, although scant details are given.

The reality is that this child died directly due to its Mother's inability to look after it properly.

[Cloverjo]

A lot was made of the fact she was on Facebook at the time of the poor boy's death. If she'd been reading Proust, would so much have been made of it? I doubt it.
Five years seems very harsh, especially as she has other children. What's going to happen to them while she's away? I think some kind of supervised parenting order would have been more useful to all concerned.

My dad still has an uncovered fish pond in his garden, even though his small grandson comes to visit about once a year. Should he be punished if the worst happened?

[mikey4444]

Clover....if some dreadful did happen, and god forbid it didn't, wouldn't some of the fault, at least, be down to the person who has the pond ?

There has to be more to this case than what is being reported. In cases like this, expensive reports from social workers normally plays a big part in the proceedings.

[naomi24]

Thanks Talbot.

[Prudie]

I agree there must be a lot more than has been reported otherwise 5 years seems excessively harsh.

[ummmm]

Mikey...it's not a very detailed article.

People do learn by their mistakes and we don't know who she learnt her parenting skills from.

[naomi24]

A momentary lapse - any parent knows what can happen if they take their eyes off a two-year old for a second - but there does seem to be rather more to this.

[-Talbot-]

A little more info than the BBC link gives.
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Mum-Claire-Barnett-jailed-death-son-Joshua-2-fell/story-27954035-detail/story.html

There was a bit of a gap between my second and third child, the first thing I did on the arrival of no.3 was fill in my garden pond. Much better than years of being on edge.

[agchristie]

It made me think, I accidentally left a stair gate open when I thought it had locked into place last week. My child climbed to the top and then fell all the way. I felt sick as I had visions of causing a serious head or internal injuries. Thankfully, no serious harm was done.

[mikey4444]

agchristie...I have every sympathy with you there. But if you had a small child in the house and you hadn't bothered to invest in a child gate, it wouldn't have been an accident, which can happen to anyone, but a case of neglect, which is what this case seems to be about.

Whether she was in facebook or not doesn't really matter. Accidents happen to toddlers all the time and its next to impossible to stand over them 24 hours a day. But this womans fault was in not removing the risk of the garden pond in the first place, as relatives had already asked her to do.

[ummmm]

There were no stair gates when I was a kid.

Ag...I had stair gates when my kids were small but my youngest could climb them as soon as he could walk. I had to remove them for his safety.

[Prudie]

She's not been sent to prison for not putting a fence round a pond though, there must be far more.

[Gromit]

All children who drown in ponds, and all unsupervised children hit by cars are being neglected, but the guardian rarely gets a prison sentence, nevermind such a long one. Apart from anything, it deprves her other children of their mother.
I suspect there is a bit of social precudice in the sentence. If ahe lived in a different part of the country, and was distracted by some other readon, she would not have been prosecuted at all.

[ummmm]

//All children who drown in ponds, and all unsupervised children hit by cars are being neglected//

Not true. What happens when one of your children falls over and hurts themselves at one end of the garden and then the other one falls in a pond.

Parents can only do one thing at once.