Woman who played video game while her son drowned unsupervised in bath sentenced

**Trigger warning - details some may find distressing

A Durham woman whose infant son drowned unsupervised in the bath while she played a video game on her mobile phone has been jailed today after pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter at Teesside Crown Court. 

Danielle Massey, 31, of West Chilton Terrace, Ferryhill, had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in relation to the death of her seven-month-old son, Charlie Goodall. She also pleaded to a further charge of possession of cannabis. 

In February of 2022, Massey had been bathing Charlie at their home in a bath seat, which was not suitable in her bath as it couldn’t be properly fit and had clear instructions a child should not be left unsupervised. 

At one stage, Massey left Charlie unattended in the bath seat for a prolonged period whilst she played a game on her phone. Tragically, during this time Charlie fell over in the seat and drowned. 

She initially claimed she left Charlie unsupervised for only a few minutes to make a bottle and find a towel for him. Though later claimed after she couldn’t find a bottle, she fell asleep on the sofa.

However, there was no evidence at the scene to corroborate her version of events - no prepared bottles were found during the police search of the scene and there were no clean towels found within the vicinity of the bathroom.

A digital forensic examination of her phone found that it had been in use for a period of 26 minutes and, at times throughout this period, had been connected to an online cooking game. 

Andrea Milsom, a Senior Crown Prosecutor at CPS North East, said: “Danielle Massey constructed various inconsistent and implausible accounts to try to conceal the truth of what really happened. 

“None of her accounts were accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service and we used digital forensic evidence to prove she had been playing on her phone leaving her son alone in a dangerously unsuited seat in a bath.

“Her utter lack of care or concern for Charlie’s safety led to his death.

“Our thoughts very much remain with the father of Charlie Goodall, for whom this must remain a difficult time. We sincerely hope that the sentencing today of Danielle Massey provides some measure of comfort to him.”