A teenager who was left to die on the sofa while watching Tipping Point could hear her mother having sex with random men after her bedroom door was removed and not replaced, an inquiry has heard.
Mother Sharon Goldie, 49, thought her 13-year-old daughter was ‘exaggerating’ and just had a stomach bug so she refused to let her go to the hospital in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, in 2018.
She left Robyn on the sofa to watch TV while she went to the pub but returned to find her unresponsive on the sofa. The mother sat outside drinking with a friend and later checked on her daughter, who had stopped breathing. Robyn died after developing peritonitis and a perforated duodenal ulcer.
An inquiry into her death heard Goldie had been ‘entertaining men at home drunk’, some of whom behaved ‘inappropriately’ towards Robyn.
Robyn’s bedroom door had also been removed and never replaced, with the schoolgirl suspected of having been exposed to her mother’s sexual activity.
Maggie Mellon, an independent social worker who compiled a report on the case, told the inquiry there was ‘disturbing’ evidence about what Robyn was experiencing.
Mellon, 70, said: ‘The biggest question was whether she could safely stay in her mother’s care and it was thought she could be made safe through advice and guidance.
‘There was some disturbing evidence being known, such as that Robyn did not have a bedroom door, which had been taken off by Sharon and had never been put back again.
‘Her mother had been entertaining men at home drunk and Robyn had been exposed to her mother’s sexual activity and there were adult men in the house behaving inappropriately towards Robyn in the home.’
Mellon also revealed Goldie told social workers that she did not want to look after Robyn following her return to live with her.
She added: ‘I’m conscious that she was very stressed and didn’t want to look after her because of the stress it was causing her.’
Mellon said she was unsure how much Goldie, who suffered a brain injury in the 1980s, was aware of how ill Robyn was before she died.
Mellon said: ‘I think Sharon might not have known how ill Robyn was because she was being told to be firm, have boundaries and be there for her daughter, but I’m not sure how much Sharon understood and clearly she did not understand that Robyn was critically ill.’
Goldie was jailed for three years and six months in 2020 after admitting wilful ill-treatment and neglect between July 2017 and July 2018.
The social workers and the system gave the mother too many chances, and this leads to bad situations like this, the loss of life.
Unfortunately, reform is not going to occur, and local government is moving far too slowly, particularly when it comes to social services. Too many rights are granted to abusive parents, but what about the children’s rights?
Sadly, the removal of children who are at risk takes a long time because there are a lot of meetings, reports, etc. For these kids that require them, there aren’t enough foster homes or care facilities. These kinds of kids need to be helped by a system, but will the necessary adjustments be financially supported?
Of course, the mother was to blame for her daughter’s death, but if social services had intervened much sooner, this poor girl might not have been dead. They were aware of what was going on and still did nothing, very neglectful. The mother was charged for neglect, and so should have social services.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 