A five-year-old girl was just minutes from death and had a core temperature of just 25C after being left in a cold bath by her mother and stepfather.
Georgia Newman, 29, from Huddersfield, and her partner, Jordan Kilkenny, also 29, put the child into the cold bath at their home in Leeds on November 1, 2019, and left her there.
Leeds Crown Court on Monday heard Newman - who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time - lied and told hospital staff the girl had "slipped and banged her head in the bath and blamed it on the bubble bath and said she would not be buying that brand again."
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Prosecutor Richard Woolfall said the emergency services "scooped her up" and took her to hospital due to her critical condition. He said: "A paramedic attended at 3.31pm and was directed into the living room where the five-year-old complainant was on the couch with her eyes open but unresponsive. She was blue and frothing at the mouth.
"Jordan Kilkenny said she had fallen in the bath and he had given her CPR. He [the paramedic] noted she was so stiff he couldn't move her. He tried to get an oxygen reading from her finger but no reading could be obtained because she had shut down because she was so cold. Her chest was making crackling noises suggesting suggesting she had inhaled water in both lungs. In 19 minutes an ambulance arrived and she was scooped up and taken to hospital."
While at the hospital, a temperature check showed the girl had a temperature of just 25.1C and a low heart rate. She also suffered a seizure and doctors believed she was "close to death", the prosecutor said.
Mr Woolfall said: "The mother was spoken to again and she said her daughter was found in the bath and was found face down by her partner. Defibrillator pads were put onto her chest in case she went into cardiac arrest so they [hospital staff] were in a position to immediately restart her heart."
The court heard the girl also had to be warmed using a machine that would increase her core temperature
Mr Woolfall said: "A pediatric consultant said she had never seen a patient with a core temperature of 25C who had survived. She indicated that the temperature was more consistent with someone who had fallen into the North Sea for a time before being taken out. She said she believed she was minutes from death."
A professor of infant health and developmental physiology said in a statement he believed the girl would have been in the bath for a time between one to three hours. He said: "Once the shivering stops the person becomes drowsy. If the parents were in the room with her they would be well aware she was becoming unwell 30 minutes before they found her." The court heard there was also a delay of between 30 minutes and 45 minutes from when the girl had been found to the call to the emergency services.
Heartbreakingly, as the girl was interviewed by police, she told officers Kilkenny had put her in the bath and Newman knew. She said she laid down because "mummy asked her to" and she was laid down for a long time and "that made her sad".
Mr Woolfall said: "She said it had never happened before and when she was naughty she usually had to sit on a step."
The court heard in the day before the incident, a Google search had been made on Kilkenny's phone which asked: "What can happen to a child in a cold bath for 45 minutes?"
Both Kilkenny, of Norman Terrace in Leeds, and Newman, of Thorne Hill Road in Huddersfield, were interviewed by police. Kilkenny said he heard a "bang" from the bathroom and found the girl unresponsive before he started to carry out chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth. Newman stuck with her account that Kilkenny had found the girl. The court heard she told officers she thought her daughter was concussed and had called an ambulance after trying to warm her up by drying her hair.
Kilkenny pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child at the Magistrates' court and Newman pleaded guilty to the same charge at a plea, trial and preparation hearing. Neither had any previous convictions. Mr Woolfall said the girl now lives with her biological father and is "thriving".
Mitigating for Newman, Alexander Menary said a psychiatric report the mum-of-four was made the subject of spoke of her upbringing and "difficulties which have remained unresolved". He said: "She has been diagnosed with a recurrent depressive disorder and it seems she was depressed at the time.
"She was pregnant and had two small children. She is someone who is insightful. She has completed a course of cognitive behavioural therapy [CBT] and has voluntarily joined the Freedom Project. She has had three years to reflect on her behaviour and the impact and consequences of this will be lifelong. She bitterly regrets what happened."
Mitigating for Kilkenny, Mark Foley said he pleaded guilty on the basis that the girl had been placed into the bath as punishment and on two occasions she had been asked to get out of the bath but had refused.
Mr Foley said: "There was clearly an abandonment of the room when Jordan Kilkenny left her there. Jordan Kilkenny urges this was an isolated incident."
The barrister added: "He bitterly regrets and is disgusted by his actions. He has lived with the consequences of what he did."
His Honour Judge Robin Mairs told Kilkenny and Newman their crime was a "punishment for misbehaviour" and said they were in an environment where the child "should have felt safe and cared for".
He added: "She was subjected to an extreme, calculated and tortuous punishment. When paramedics arrived her heart rate was only 60 beats-per-minute when it should have been 80 to 100. The parental culpability was equal. She referred to you as mum and dad even you weren't [Kilkenny] her natural father. You betrayed the trust she had of you and was calculated.
"In interview you gave accounts designed to minimise your responsibility and now thankfully she is in the care of her father and appears to be thriving."
Kilkenny was jailed for three years and four months and Newman was jailed for three years and six months.
Following the sentence, Detective Inspector Victoria Alexander of West Yorkshire Police said: "We take the protection of children very seriously and work closely with our partner agencies to ensure that those who commit offences that harm children face the consequences of their actions."
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