A mother has been given a suspended sentence after her baby daughter drowned while left unsupervised in a bath.

Lucy Booth was just nine-months-old when the tragedy happened at her Littleborough home in May last year.

Her mother, Jessica Anne Gardiner, has now been handed a two-year suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter.

Prosecutor Robert Hall described how Gardiner, 26, had placed Lucy in the bath, with two other young children, at her home on Lightburn Avenue on May 11.

The court heard they were then left alone for an unspecified period of time. When Gardiner returned to the bathroom she discovered that Lucy had drowned.

The mum immediately rushed next door to a neighbour who tried CPR before paramedics arrived.

Staff at Royal Oldham Hospital battled to resuscitate tiny Lucy but it was sadly too late.

Exact circumstances 'unclear'

The court heard how Gardiner had originally told 999 call handlers that she had left the bathroom for no more than five minutes to use the toilet in another part of the house.

But when questioned by police later that evening, she claimed she had been bathing Lucy when she ‘slipped’ from her arms and drowned instantly.

A post mortem report dismissed this claim, stating it would have taken more than a few seconds for the baby to drown.

When challenged, the mum later changed her statement back to what she had originally told emergency services.

The prosecution allege that based on evidence found in the house, Gardiner was not in fact using the toilet as she had claimed, but had been downstairs, filling up a milk bottle, putting away the shopping, and sorting out the washing.

His Honour Judge Michael Henshall said the exact circumstances surrounding the tragedy remained unclear.

'Momentary lapse'

He acknowledged submissions by the defence that Gardiner was a ‘loving mum’ and this had just been a ‘momentary lapse with the most tragic of consequences’.

The defence said that Gardiner, whose address was given as Manchester Road, Littleborough, could not be punished more than she was punishing herself each day, with the loss of a child.

Judge Henshall said that out of both of Gardiner’s two statement of events, the first about her daughter slipping was ‘undoubtedly false’ and what she first told paramedics was ‘probably closer’ to the truth.

The court heard how the defendant suffered with ADHD and had herself experienced a traumatic upbringing.

Judge Henshall said that people with the condition find it difficult to carry out instrumental and organised tasks and that the defendant had simply been trying to do her best.

He described it as a “profound tragedy”, and that her condition was the root cause.

Gardiner was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years. She must also undergo rehabilitation for her condition.