A mum has been jailed after she left her baby to die at home in 27C heat with a fractured skull.
Stacey Davis, 35, left one-year-old Ethan Davis in his cot for two hours while she ran errands and visited a park. The child was abandoned at home alone while trapped in a warm room that featured no open windows or running fans.
Davis, who reportedly smoked cannabis on a regular basis while in the presence of her son, returned to the property on June 27, 2018, and began to text her friend, failing to check on the baby for at least another 30 minutes, the court heard. When she went into his home, she found him lifeless and unresponsive in his cot.
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He was rushed to the hospital where he was shortly pronounced dead. Davis, of Wiltshire, appeared at Salisbury Crown Court on Thursday, December 1 of this year where she was jailed for two years for child cruelty offences. She had previously admitted the offence at a previous hearing in May 2022.
Prosecutor Simon Jones told the court that a post-mortem examination found a significant head injury - a 15cm skull fracture - but Ethan's cause of death remains unascertained. Under questioning, she told police that her son had fallen out of a door and hit his head and despite the swelling, bruising and obvious distress, she failed to take him to hospital.
"Any reasonable parent would have noticed the distress and sought medical attention", Mr Jones added. Forensic investigator Nicola Anderson also detected that there were high levels of cannabis in Ethan's hair.
She highlighted that the findings were consistent with Davis smoking the drug regularly around Ethan. Defence barrister Mark Ashley said his client's case was a "classic example of post-natal depression".
Ethan was born prematurely via C-section and required colon surgery immediately, resulting in a two-month stay in hospital. He said Davis had relationship problems and financial issues and was struggling to bond with Ethan.
She was visiting him in the hospital infrequently, blaming the inability to obtain lifts from family. "Not only suffering from that, she was coping with it in the wrong way – she was smoking cannabis", Mr Ashley added.
Judge Parkes KC interjected, stating: "It was incredibly stupid, go outside and do it."
Continuing, Mr Ashley told of how the defendant was scared to take Ethan to the hospital with an injury after social services previously removed him from her care due to a suspected broken leg. However, he was returned when the injury was found not to exist and found no wrongdoing.
He told the court that Davis has been working with Turning Point to cut out her cannabis use, but has smoked it this week due to her "stress levels being particularly high".
Asking for a suspended prison sentence, he added: "Everybody involved is trying to rebuild their lives, she is trying to rebuild her life.
''The matter has been hanging over her head for years, she is extremely worried about going into custody."
Describing Davis' behaviour as "thoroughly selfish", Judge Parkes KC imposed a two-year immediate prison sentence, for which she will serve half in custody.
He said: "There is no evidence you or his father caused Ethan's death, no suggestion you did so. The sad fact is that you fell very seriously short of the duty owed to Ethan as his mother.
"He suffered a 15cm skull fracture one-to-three weeks before his death, likely to be from blunt impact of significant force. 'You failed to seek medical attention for the injury to his head. Any normal parent would put the child’s health before anything.
"It is clear you abandoned him on two occasions, including the day of this death. "This is aggravated by the fact it happened twice. You left Ethan alone in his cot in a room with a closed window.
"You sat on a bench at one point, and you took [a child] to the park and went to a shop. You had taken your car to the car wash on way back. It is reasonably clear you weren’t in a hurry.
"What is particularly appalling about this episode is that you spent half an hour on the phone, sending and receiving messages [when you arrived home], until you went to check on Ethan. You had not seen him, checked on him, for nearly three hours."
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