A mother ignored her 13-year-old daughter’s repeated pleas for medical help and went to the pub before the teenager died following a prolonged period of neglect, a court heard. Sharon Goldie, 45, from Wishaw, admitted wilfully ill-treating and neglecting her daughter, Robyn, at the High Court in Glasgow. Robyn died from peritonitis caused by a perforated stomach ulcer. The court heard that a senior medic concluded she would have been expected to survive had she received medical treatment during her illness. Prosecutors accepted Goldie’s not guilty plea to culpable homicide.
Teenager repeatedly asked for help
The court heard Robyn had previously lived with her grandmother amid concerns about her mother’s drinking and ability to care for her. Prosecutor Ashley Edwards KC described that period of Robyn’s life as “stable”. She returned to live with Goldie in 2017, with social workers continuing to monitor the family. Jurors were told Goldie repeatedly declined offers to attend parenting classes and, on one occasion, asked for her daughter to be removed from her care. Conditions at their home were described as poor, while Robyn was said to have appeared “thin, dirty and unkempt”. The teenager would visit the Melody Bar in Wishaw looking for her mother and asking for money to buy food. On another occasion, she approached a neighbour and asked for £1 to get something to eat. The court also heard allegations that Goldie physically abused her daughter, including slapping and biting her, while Robyn sometimes recorded her mother screaming at her.
‘Pain all over’
During the week before her death, Robyn complained of stomach and leg pain and told a friend she had been ill and had not eaten for several days. As her condition deteriorated, she asked her mother to get medical help because she was in “pain all over”. Goldie refused to call an ambulance, the court heard. When a friend offered to take Robyn to hospital in a taxi, Goldie prevented him from doing so and described her daughter as “attention seeking”. The following day, Robyn asked a neighbour to call an ambulance because she was struggling to breathe. The court heard Goldie shouted at her to return inside.
Mother went to pub
On the morning of 26 July, the day Robyn died, a social worker arrived to take the teenager to a catering class. Goldie spoke through the letterbox and said Robyn was unwell and had been ill since the previous Thursday. Despite her daughter’s condition, Goldie subsequently went to the pub. She later returned home with a friend and found Robyn unresponsive on a sofa. The court heard that Goldie and her friend took another drink from the fridge before going outside. When the friend later checked on Robyn again, she discovered the teenager was dead, and an ambulance was called. Goldie initially told paramedics: “She’s at it.” After being informed that her daughter had died, she began wailing and said: “No, she cannot be.” Goldie later told police she believed Robyn had been suffering from a bug and had been improving. She also said she thought her daughter had been trying to wind her up and that she had told Robyn ambulances were for people having heart attacks. Lord Beckett deferred sentencing to obtain further information and allowed Goldie to remain on bail. He told her: “It is a serious case, but I want more information before deciding what to do.”
Originally published by UKNIP.
