A “callous” nursery worker is facing years in jail after being convicted of killing a nine-month-old girl who died after being strapped face down to a beanbag for more than 90 minutes.
Genevieve Meehan suffocated after being placed in “mortal danger” as a “punishment” by Kate Roughley, the deputy manager of Tiny Toes nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, the trial heard.
Roughley, 37, was found guilty on Monday of the manslaughter of Genevieve after a four-week trial at Manchester crown court. She will be sentenced on Wednesday.
The court heard how Genevieve, known to her family as Gigi, was left for one hour and 37 minutes swaddled in a blanket and strapped face down to a beanbag in the baby room at Tiny Toes on 9 May 2022.
Genevieve’s mother, Katie Meehan, held back tears in the public gallery as the jury foreperson said jurors had unanimously found Roughley guilty of manslaughter after five hours and 46 minutes of deliberations.
Roughley showed no reaction as she was taken into custody after the judge, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen KC, said she was facing a “lengthy” prison term.
Roughley’s mother, who sat on the opposite side of the public gallery to Genevieve’s family, was heard to say “She’s not a monster” after the verdicts were delivered.
Outside court, Genevieve’s father, John Meehan, said her death had “destroyed our family” and that they grieved for her every day.
“We long desperately to see her smile, to hear her laugh and to feel her warm embrace,” he said. “To many, Genevieve is just a baby that was seen on CCTV, or discussed in evidence during this trial. But to us she is our precious and wonderful daughter, and she is not to be defined by the manner of her death.
“She was a person. She loved to laugh, to play with her tambourine, to eat spaghetti bolognese and spend time with her big sister. She was kind, affectionate … and mischievous.”
Meehan, a barrister, said the family would never forgive “the callousness” of Roughley’s actions. “She was entrusted with the care of our daughter, yet she put her own convenience and selfish interests above Genevieve’s life. She treated our daughter with cruelty and contempt.
“Knowing what she had done, she could have taken responsibility and saved our family from enduring the horror of this trial. However such a basic act of decency was beyond her.
“Instead she has lied and lied and lied throughout and has sought to deflect attention to anyone but herself.”
Roughley, who had worked at the nursery for 17 years and ran the baby room, denied manslaughter and an alternative charge of child cruelty, insisting she did not cause the girl’s death.
The prosecutor Richard Wright KC told jurors that the defendant had placed the nine-month-old in “mortal danger” and then deliberately did nothing about it.
The jury heard that Roughley repeatedly expressed frustration with Genevieve in the hours and days before her death. In CCTV footage, Roughley could be seen picking the girl out of her cot and placing her impatiently on a play mat, muttering “vile” and “Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes.”
Within an hour, Roughley was seen clapping and singing: “Oh Genevieve. Genevieve go home, Genevieve go home, go home Genevieve,” as the child cried on a play mat.
Days earlier, Roughley had told her “stop your whingeing” and said: “Genevieve, if we had any chance of being friends, you just blew it,” later adding: “You are driving me bananas.”
DI Charlotte Whalley, of Greater Manchester police, described Roughley as a “callous and negligent” individual and added: “Genevieve should have gone home to her family that day and it was down to the actions of Kate Roughley that she did not.
“At the heart of our investigation is a family whose lives have been torn apart, siblings who will grow up without their sister, parents who will bear the pain of her loss for the rest of their lives, and loved ones who will never get to watch Gigi grow and flourish.”
Karen Tonge, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It is difficult to comprehend how someone in such a position of trust could have such a complete disregard for a child’s wellbeing and life. Her actions and inactions have had devastating consequences.”
