Sharon Goldie: Mother jailed after going to pub while 13-year-old daughter lay dying on sofa

A mother has been jailed after she left her dying teenage daughter on the sofa while she went to the pub.

Robyn Goldie, 13, developed peritonitis and died having suffered a perforated duodenal ulcer after her mother failed to get her medical help.

Sentencing Sharon Goldie to three years and six months behind bars, the judge, Lord Beckett, told her: “Your daughter was in pain that afternoon but you gave her a painkiller and went to the pub.

“By the time you came home she was slumped on the sofa but you and your friend went into the garden to have a drink because the weather was nice. She was dead an hour later.”

Robyn died on 26 July 2018 and days before her death Goldie stopped her daughter getting treatment, a court heard.

The teenager had been feeling unwell and by 24 July she was pale and shivering, and said she needed an ambulance but her mother refused, the court was told.

Goldie also refused a friend’s offer to take Robyn to hospital in a taxi.

On 25 July, Robyn was in the garden asking a neighbour to help her get an ambulance and saying she could not breathe but Goldie intervened and took her back inside.

The 45-year-old from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire pleaded guilty at a previous court hearing to wilfully ill-treating and neglecting Robyn in a way that likely caused her to suffer unnecessarily or be injured between 12 July 2017 and 26 July 2018.

Goldie admitted to failing to provide adequate food, clothing or heating for her child, confessed to hitting her and giving her permission to smoke cannabis and consume alcohol.

She pleaded guilty to exposing her to unhygienic living conditions – which included exposing Robyn to cat urine and faeces, which resulted in her getting fleas.

Sentencing her in a High Court sitting at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Lord Beckett told the mother she displayed “considerable cruelty over a prolonged period”.

He said there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.

Lord Beckett said: “Even if your daughter could sometimes be challenging and difficult, she was subjected to a terrible ordeal of neglect and ill treatment by you over a long period.

“You had enough money to provide food for your daughter but chose not to and purchased alcohol and cannabis, you gave this to your daughter instead of adequate nutrition.”

Prosecutors accepted Goldie’s not guilty plea to a charge of culpable homicide.

The court was told Robyn experienced a serious traumatic brain injury aged nine, which affected her cognitively and physically, impacting her ability to manage over the years.

Representing Goldie, solicitor advocate Marco Guarino said: “I can say to my Lord there is no punishment this court can impose that will be greater than the one she is suffering just now as a result of her actions, the death of her child.”

He told the court Goldie’s 25-year-old daughter recently died in tragic circumstances in China and she has one remaining child, a 23-year-old son.

(c) Sky News 2020: Sharon Goldie: Mother jailed after going to pub while 13-year-old daughter lay dying on sofa