Baby drowned in bath as mum played a game on her phone in the next room

A mother who was playing a cooking game on her phone while her infant son tragically drowned in the bathtub has been sent to jail. Seven-month-old Charlie Goodall tragically passed away after toppling over in an unsteady bath seat as his mother, Danielle Massey, left him unsupervised "for a prolonged period of time" at their house.

During a hearing at Teesside Crown Court, it emerged that police were summoned by paramedics to a home on West Chilton Terrace, Chilton, on February 16 2022, where they found Charlie lifeless in the bathtub. Massey, aged 31, entered a guilty plea to manslaughter, acknowledging her negligence in securely attaching the seat to the tub.

She also confessed to possessing cannabis and disclosed that she had smoked on the day of Charlie's death. The court was informed by the defendant that she did not intentionally leave Charlie alone for a lengthy period; she had exited the ground floor bathroom to retrieve a towel from upstairs, per her account.

Suffering from asthma, Massey claimed to have taken a break on the sofa downstairs to regain her breath and briefly closed her eyes. Upon returning to the bathroom, she discovered Charlie lifeless in the water and immediately called emergency services.

The court was told that the mother's story about how long her son Charlie had been left alone varied, stating durations from two to ten minutes. When confronted with evidence that she was using a gaming app titled Cooking Madness for 26 minutes at the time Charlie drowned, Massey claimed she wasn't actively playing but that it was merely running in the background, reports the Liverpool Echo.

However, following a Newton hearing on Wednesday, her explanation was dismissed by a judge who sentenced her based on