A woman has been jailed for five years for child cruelty after her two-year-old son drowned while she was checking Facebook on her phone.
The Guardian reports that Joshua Barnett died after falling into a pond while playing in the garden at his home in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
His mother, Claire Barnett, was criticized by the judge for her “bad parenting” during a hearing at Hull crown court on Friday.
Claire, 31, was looking at her phone at the time of the boy’s death. She attempted to save the child but he died in hospital later the same day.
The court was told the Claire was an inattentive mother who had been warned to cover the pond, because it was dangerous. She used to let Joshua play out in the road.
Neighbours had previously contacted social services after he narrowly avoided being hit by a car. Judge Jeremy Richardson told her: “Your son died due to your neglectful conduct. You will have to live with that for the remainder of your life. For a parent to behave as you did, repeatedly, amounts to consistently bad parenting.
“I trust that you will never be allowed to have further unsupervised contact to any child. If you should have any further children, they will almost certainly be removed from you.
“You pose very serious risks to any child for whom you might have responsibility.”
Claire’s lawyer argued that she was distracted by someone commenting on her Facebook page, adding: “Any mother going about the house can be distracted by a telephone or a washing machine.”
