Stockport nursery manager caused death of baby girl, trial told

The prosecutor told the court the risk in wrapping a child of that age so tightly was “obvious”.

He told the jury that Genevieve had also been strapped front down onto the bag by means of a harness, which was “bound to restrict” her ability to move and breathe freely.

The infant was then covered in a blanket, and her “cries were ignored and she was left tightly swaddled, restrained and covered in this position”, Mr Wright added.

The prosecutor said Genevieve was left virtually immobilised and face down from 13:35 BST for an hour and 37 minutes.

“Any level of interest in her well-being was during this period, we say, sporadic and, at best, fleeting,” he said.

The defendant treated the baby in a way that “all sober and reasonable people would recognise was both dangerous and would, unless averted, subject Genevieve to the risk of some harm”, the prosecutor said.

The court heard the nurse manager had told a colleague “just ignore anyone if they start” in CCTV footage taken after she checked cots and left for her break at 13:44 BST.

Later, the blanket was moved from the baby’s head by the defendant, but Genevieve’s cries and efforts to breathe were ignored until she lay motionless, jurors heard.

The prosecutor said the defendant had appeared to “take against” the baby in the days prior, when she had strapped her in a similar position, and treated her without “any degree of tenderness or affection”.

She had referred to the child as a “stress head”, told her to “stop whinging” and to “go home”.

Her hostility to Genevieve was, we say, as illogical as it was disturbing”, the prosecutor said.

Ms Elliott said the defendant was devastated by the events at the nursery where she had worked since 18.

“In those 17 years Kate Roughley had never been in trouble. There were no complaints about her work, in fact quite the opposite.

The trial, expected to last four weeks, continues on Thursday.