Claire Barnett has been jailed for five years for neglect, after her two-year-old son Joshua’s tragic drowning.
The incident occurred last March at Ms Barnett’s home in East Yorkshire. While she was inside of her house, allegedly checking her Facebook account on her phone, son Joshua was fighting for his life after falling into a pond.
By the time Ms Barnett realised what was happening, Joshua had drowned. Her attempts to resuscitate him failed.
In a hearing this week, the court heard how Ms Barnett gave a number of different accounts of events leading up to and surrounding Joshua’s death. It also emerged that neighbours had previously called social services on the mother-of-four after she left Joshua and a friend outside alone to play; the children were apparently almost hit by a car during that incident.
Delivering a jail sentence to Ms Barnett, who pleaded guilty to four counts of child cruelty, the presiding judge said that she posed ‘very serious risks’ to any children under her care.
“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,” said Judge Jeremy Richardson.
