Mum Who Went Drinking Leaving 13YO Unwell Daughter to Die Instead of Calling for Ambulance Is Finally Facing Jail Time

While some incidents leave us speechless, those that get away with crimes make it harder for us to digest bad news. But this time, justice prevailed.

Forty-five-year-old Sharon Goldie has been sentenced to jail for three years and six months after pleading guilty to wilfully ill-treating and neglecting her daughter between July 12, 2017, and July 26, 2018, that lead to her death. She admitted that she failed to provide basic needs to her daughter Robyn Goldie, like adequate food, clothing, or heating, reported Western Telegraph. Instead, the child was subjected to regular beatings. The mother also allowed her to drink alcohol and smoke cannabis.

Robyn was kept in such a pitiful condition that she once even begged someone for £1 to eat.

In the High Court sitting at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Lord Beckett heard the case and told Sharon, “Even if your daughter could sometimes be challenging and difficult, she was subjected to a terrible ordeal of neglect and ill-treatment by you over a long period." Lord Beckett denied an alternative to a custodial sentence.

The court was told that Robyn was suffering from peritonitis, which led to her death on July 26, 2018. She had been feeling ill before the week of the incident, but Sharon refused to call an ambulance, even though she could see that her daughter was shivering and turning pale.

Robyn tried asking her neighbor for help to get to the hospital, but Sharon dismissed that as well. When the paramedics arrived at their house that day, Sharon told them that "she's at it." Describing the day of the incident, Lord Beckett said that Robyn had complained about her pain but Sharon ignored her daughter's cries, "gave her a painkiller and went to the pub."

By the time she was back, Sharon found Robyn "slumped on the sofa but you and your friend went into the garden to have a drink because the weather was nice. She was dead an hour later.” Sharon back then claimed that her daughter was "faking it."

An NSPCC Scotland spokeswoman said that Sharon failed to be the mother that she was supposed to be as she refused Robyn's basic rights to food and medical help. “She put her own desires before her child’s needs, repeatedly ignoring Robyn’s pleas of distress. This deeply disturbing and tragic case shines a spotlight on the devastating impact that neglect can have on a child’s life,” she added.

Kenny Donnelly, procurator fiscal for the High Court, said, “This was a challenging case and a distressing crime. Our thoughts are with Robyn’s loved ones as they attempt to come to terms with what happened.”

Solicitor advocate Marco Guarin, who is representing Sharon, told the court that she suffered from a traumatic brain injury as a child, at the age of 9, that affected the ability to manage simple things over the years as her cognitive and physical aspects were impacted, reported The Sun.

He said, “This is a lady who clearly has difficulties both mentally and physically, impacting her ability in how to view things and the consequences of actions or omissions and I think that lies at the root of her culpability in this case."

“I can say to my Lord there is no punishment this court can impose that will be greater than the one she is suffering just now as a result of her actions, the death of her child,” he added. The prosecutors later accepted Sharon's not guilty plea to a charge of culpable homicide.

Marco also told the court that Sharon has other children out of whom only her 23-year-old son survives as her daughter, 25, passed away recently, rather tragically, in China.

References:

https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/national/18831123.mother-jailed-going-pub-daughter-lay-dying/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13055299/mum-daughter-dying-sofa-pub-jailed/