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 . Danielle Massey, 31, who has been jailed at Teesside Crown Court for seven years for the manslaughter (Image: Durham Constabulary/PA Wire) However, following a Newton hearing on Wednesday, her explanation was dismissed by a judge who sentenced her based on the belief that she was "active and awake" while her child suffered a fatal accident in another room. Mr Justice Goss said: "(The defendant has given) various changing, inconsistent and implausible accounts of what happened in that interval to try and conceal the truth, which is that she had not properly prepared for the bathing of Charlie and was doing what she wanted to do, engaging in various activities on her phone including using a gaming app, confident in the belief Charlie was in his chair, in the bath.

"I reject her account of being exhausted and closing her eyes, I am sure she was active and awake." Massey and her son, from County Durham, had lived in a mother and child unit before returning home and a compulsory child protection plan from social services had concluded just days before the tragic incident, the court heard. Charlie was placed under a less stringent voluntary agreement with social services rather than a legally binding one.

Prosecutor Richard Wright KC told the court that Massey had been trained in bathing and was aware of the importance of having towels ready and not leaving a baby unsupervised. The court heard that the bath seat used for Charlie should have been secured with suction pads, but it did not fit properly due to the shape of Massey's bathtub. Mr Wright stated: "The court can be sure that the cause of Charlie's death by drowning was not simply because the bath seat was not properly adhering to the basin, but because he was left in the bath seat.

.. unsupervised over a prolonged period of time.

"The court can be sure that the period of time in which he was unattended was not the result of inadvertence but as a result of the defendant making a deliberate decision to leave the bathroom and occupy herself with other tasks, including playing a game on her mobile telephone." Martin Sharpe, defending, said about Massey: "It's quite clear she did have a very strong bond with Charlie. She didn't mean to cause harm to Charlie.

She did lack organisation, she didn't follow the instructions and should never have left Charlie unattended." Massey received a seven-year prison sentence for manslaughter..