The parents of a baby killed by a ‘callous’ nursery worker said they could ‘never forgive’ her as she faces a lengthy jail term for their daughter’s manslaughter.
John and Katie Meehan spoke for the first time about the loss of their nine-month-old daughter Genevieve Meehan, known as ‘Gigi’ after jurors found Kate Roughley guilty of killing her.
Roughley is due to receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment over the ‘ill-treatment’ of Genevieve, who was left for over 90 minutes before being found ‘unresponsive and blue’.
The 37-year-old worker from Heaton Norris, Stockport, was said to have ignored the ‘serious and obvious’ risks of strapping a baby face down on a bean bag to sleep.
Speaking about Manchester Crown Court today, barrister Mr Meehan said: ‘We will never forgive the callousness of Kate Roughley’s actions. She was entrusted with the care of or our daughter but instead, she treated her with contempt.’
Mr Meehan stood with his tearful solicitor wife Katie and paid tribute to their daughter, who ‘loved life, played the tambourine, and spent time with her big sister’, and was ‘kind, infectious, and mischievous’.
‘We loved every day watching her develop. We’ll never accept the cruelty of her life being taken away,’ he said. ‘Her life was full of promise and wonder, and it was taken.
‘Genevieve’s loss has destroyed our family and we grieve for her every day. We’re desperate to see her smile, see her laugh and feel her warm embrace.’
Mr Meehan said he and his wife do not want to see her defined by the manner of Genevieve’s death and that ‘our beautiful daughter deserves to be remembered for the wonderful person she was.’
During a month-long trial, jurors heard Roughley displayed a ‘lack of sympathy’ towards children, labelling Genevieve ‘vile’, a ‘whinger’ and a ‘diva’.
CCTV cameras showed her disregarding the child’s cries and frantic last-ditch attempts to live while the child was forcibly fastened to the bean bag and wrapped in a blanket.
Roughley, who had 17 years’ experience as a nursery worker but no children of her own, then ‘lied’ to cover up what she’d done, claiming she constantly checked on babies in her care.
The prosecution said Roughley’s ‘deliberate conduct’, ‘ill-treatment’ and ‘lack of any effective monitoring’ causing Genevieve’s death.
After more than five hours of deliberation, the Manchester Crown Court jury gave their verdicts, and Roughley looked forward without displaying any emotion.
Mrs Justice Ellen Bogan adjourned sentencing until Wednesday and remanded Roughley, whose parents were at the back of court, in custody until then.
Mrs Meehan and other family members emotionally hugged outside court and thanked the prosecution.
Manchester Crown Court heard Genevieve suffered fatal asphyxia and pathophysiological stress caused by the ‘unsafe sleep environment’ at Tiny Toes Nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, on May 9, 2022.
During the trial, Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘Her death was not the result of some terrible or unavoidable accident.
‘We say her death arose from ill-treatment she suffered at the hands of this defendant.’
On the day of tragedy, deputy manager Roughley was acting as leader in the nursery’s understaffed baby room, where she was one of only two workers looking after 11 babies.
Genevieve had been dropped off by her parents, barrister John Meehan and solicitor Katie Wheeler, at 9 am and was found unresponsive at 3.12 pm. She could not be revived and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Mr Wright said the reason for the baby’s condition wasn’t immediately apparent but became clear from CCTV footage.
He added that Roughley had put Genevieve to sleep that afternoon, wrapping her in a blanket so tightly that she was immobile.
The child had also been placed not on her back, according to safe sleep policies, but on her front and face down, strapped to a bean bag using a harness.
A blanket was also placed over her that practically covered her head to toe, with the ‘inevitable consequence’ that it would make observations more difficult and increase the risk of overheating.
He said Genevieve was visibly ‘distressed by this treatment’ yet her thrashing and cries were ignored and she was left from around 1.35 pm until she was discovered unresponsive—an hour and 37 minutes later.
Mr Wright said: ‘The risk to her of asphyxiation and death was, we say, both serious and obvious.
‘Yet the defendant ignored it and by the time she checked on Genevieve with anything vaguely representing any genuine interest, it was too late.’
The jury heard how the baby had been enrolled at the nursery just a few weeks earlier in April after she ‘thrived’ despite being born prematurely at 35 weeks.
Genevieve had been treated in hospital for bronchiolitis, which is common in young infants, and was using an inhaler but expert witnesses said the condition was not a factor in her death.
Mr Wright said that in the days leading up to the tragedy, Roughley had displayed a ‘lack of affection’ towards Genevieve that was ‘not merely visible, but tangible’.
On the day of Genevieve’s death, Roughley had used the bean bag as a ‘form of restraint’, Mr Wright said, ignoring safety advice never to place babies face down.
Under cross-examination during the trial, Roughley insisted: ‘I would never not like a nine-month-old baby. To say I disliked her is far from the truth.’
Asked if she thought that Genevieve’s death was avoidable, she said: ‘I feel that if I had checked on her a couple of seconds or minutes earlier, it may have been different.
‘It was a common practice for children to sleep in the bean bag bed.
‘I feel responsible in the fact that Genevieve was in my care that day. However, I don’t feel my actions were the reason for the death.’
She denied that calling Genevieve a ‘whinger’ and ‘a diva’ was ‘malicious’.
Roughley said: ‘Often we would say to children ‘stop whingeing’ This was not shouted at the children or said in any malicious way. They were just passing comments through the working day.’
Sarah Elliot KC, defending, told the jury Roughley looked after children in a ‘practical, responsible, no-nonsense but caring way’.
She said the defendant denied failing to make safe sleep arrangements and had ‘kept an appropriate eye’ on Genevieve.
Nine-month-old babies are not swaddled; only newborns are. It is not appropriate to strap a baby down for anything other than high chair or pram use! And why weren’t there any more cots? The proprietors of the nurseries must have been aware that the number of newborns whose parents pay a high price for their care required more than their equipment could accommodate.
Why on earth would you swaddle a child that age? Why on earth would you restrict any movement, it’s natural for them to move and unnatural to prevent it.
Newborns can’t control their movements when they’re born and often disturb themselves when they’re sleeping. Supposedly, swaddling keeps them snug as they are in the womb, but when they’re born, they should be allowed to move around freely.
To have to deal with their child’s shocking mistreatment and eventual death at the hands of this woman would be enough to rock the foundations of any loving parent. I do feel bad for the parents, who were both working to provide a better life for their child, paying handsomely in the belief that their child was being cared for with kitten gloves.
Accidents happen, I know that, but this was not an accident; rather, it appeared to be the inevitable result of blatantly nasty and deliberate disregard and abuse of the woman’s position.
The toddler was disturbed and sobbing on a bean bag for ninety minutes while being fastened face down. Abuse, plain and simple, was the cause of this.
This was poor practice and I wonder how many other children had been subjected to this treatment, but were lucky they did not have the same fate. The loss of a child is something no parent ever gets over, and more so when it could have been avoided.
This could not have been the woman’s first instance of abusing a child in this way. She did something inappropriate out of a fit of rage. The same is true with senior care facilities—there are many unscrupulous ones out there.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 