Mother who left dying daughter to visit pub is jailed

A mother who left her dying 13-year-old daughter on the sofa while she went to the pub has been jailed for three years and six months.

Robyn Goldie developed peritonitis and died in July 2018 after her mother Sharon Goldie failed to seek medical treatment for her.

She suffered a perforated duodenal ulcer.

The court heard the teenager had tried to get medical treatment the week before, but Goldie had stopped her.

Goldie, 45, pleaded guilty at a previous court hearing to wilful ill treatment and neglect of her daughter over the period of a year from July 2017 and July 2018.

She admitted failing to provide her daughter with adequate food, clothing or heating, hitting her, and permitting her to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol.

Goldie, from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, pleaded guilty to exposing her to unhygienic living conditions including cat urine and cat faeces, which led to her getting fleas.

Sentencing her in a High Court sitting at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, Lord Beckett told Goldie she showed "considerable cruelty over a prolonged period" and said there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.

He said: "Even if your daughter could sometimes be challenging and difficult, she was subjected to a terrible ordeal of neglect and ill treatment by you over a long period.

"You had enough money to provide food for your daughter but chose not to and purchased alcohol and cannabis, you gave this to your daughter instead of adequate nutrition."

The court heard Robyn was feeling unwell in the week before her death and by 24 July was pale and shivering, and said she needed an ambulance but her mother refused.

She also refused a friend's offer to take Robyn to hospital in a taxi.

On 25 July, Robyn was in the garden asking a neighbour to help her get an ambulance and saying she could not breathe but again Goldie intervened and took her back inside.

Describing 26 July, the day Robyn died, Lord Beckett said: "Your daughter was in pain that afternoon, you gave her a painkiller and went to the pub.

"By the time you came home she was slumped on the sofa but you and your friend went into the garden to have a drink because the weather was nice.

"She was dead an hour later."

Prosecutors accepted Goldie's not guilty plea to a charge of culpable homicide.

The court heard Goldie suffered a serious traumatic brain injury when she was nine, which affected her cognitively and physically and had an impact on her ability to manage over the years

Solicitor advocate Marco Guarino, representing Goldie said: "This is a lady who clearly has difficulties both mentally and physically, impacting on her ability in how to view things and the consequences of actions or omissions and I think that lies at the root of her culpability in this case.

"There is no punishment this court can impose that will be greater than the one she is suffering just now as a result of her actions, the death of her child."

He told the court Goldie's 25-year-old daughter recently died in tragic circumstances in China and she has one remaining child, a 23-year-old son.