A cannabis-using mother who abandoned her infant at home to perish in 27°C heat with a cracked skull while she went shopping has been sentenced to prison.
In June 2018, Stacey Davis, 35, left her 1-year-old son Ethan Davis in his crib alone himself for two hours as she did a few errands and went to a park close to her house in Melksham, Wiltshire.
Ethan was confined to a heated room with no fans running and no open windows as the temperature climbed.
After returning to the property, Davis, who often used marijuana near her kid, did not check on him for at least 30 minutes. Instead, the court heard that she started messaging a buddy.
When she did enter Ethan’s room, she saw him lying still on his crib.
On June 27, 2018, the child was taken to the hospital urgently, but was subsequently declared dead.
Following his previous admission of guilt to a charge of child abuse, Davis appeared yesterday at Salisbury Crown Court to receive his sentence. She received a two-year sentence.
A post-mortem investigation found Ethan had had a serious head injury, including a 15-centimeter skull fracture, but the cause of death was still unknown, according to prosecutor Simon Jones.
In a police interrogation, Davis admitted to the investigators that she had neglected to take her kid to the hospital despite his evident suffering and swelling and bruises after he had fallen out of a door and hit his head.
Any sane parent would have seen the anguish and sought medical help, according to Mr. Jones.
High concentrations of THC were also found in Ethan’s hair, according to forensic analyst Nicola Anderson.
She said that this was consistent with Davis often using marijuana around Ethan.
Davis’ condition, according to Mark Ashley, was a “typical example of post-natal depression,” though.
Ethan underwent emergency colon surgery after his caesarean delivery due to his prematurity, which necessitated a two-month hospital stay.
Davis struggled to connect with Ethan and had personal and financial troubles, according to Mr. Ashley, who testified in court.
She blamed her difficulty to get rides from relatives for the occasional visits she made to him in the hospital.
She was not only enduring it, but she was also handling it improperly by smoking cannabis, Mr. Ashley said.
After that, however, Judge Parkes KC intervened and said, “It was extremely dumb, go outside and do it.”
Mr. Ashley further related how Davis was reluctant to take Ethan to the hospital when he was hurt because social services had previously taken Ethan out of her custody because of a possible broken leg.
When the injury was determined not to have occurred and there was no proof of any misconduct, Ethan was restored to her custody.
Davis has been working with Turning Point to reduce her cannabis usage, but he said that this week she smoked it because her “stress levels were extremely high.”
Everybody involved is attempting to rebuild their lives, and she is trying to repair hers, Mr. Ashley said in asking the court to take a suspended sentence into consideration.
She has had this issue hanging over her head for years and is really concerned about being taken into jail.
Before imposing a two-year jail sentence on Davis, Judge Parkes KC referred to her actions as “thoroughly selfish.”
There is no proof that you or his father were responsible for Ethan’s death, he said to the defendant. The sad reality is that you gravely failed in your responsibility to Ethan as his mother.
One to three weeks before to his passing, he had a 15 cm skull fracture, which was most likely caused by a severe forceful blunt blow.
“You neglected to have him checked out for his head injuries.” The child’s health would come first for any reasonable parent. You clearly abandoned him twice, including the day of his death, as is evident.
This is made worse by the fact that it occurred twice. You abandoned Ethan on his crib, in a room with a shuttered window, by himself. At one time, you brought [a youngster] to the park and went to a store while sitting on a bench.
‘On the way back, you had taken your automobile to the car wash. It’s very obvious that you weren’t in a rush.
The fact that you spent a half-hour on the phone after arriving home, sending and receiving messages, before you went to check on Ethan, is especially horrible about this event.
It had been over three hours since you last checked on him or saw him.