Baby girl was scalded to death in bath

A BABY girl was scalded and died after her three-year-old sister turned on the hot water tap in their bath while their mother went downstairs to put some clothes in the washing machine, an English coroner said yesterday.

The 21-month-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered 65-70% burns to her lower face, both legs and to the front of her body in the incident at her home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on September 19, 2003.

She died two days later at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, the inquest at Halifax Town Hall heard.

West Yorkshire Coroner Roger Llewellyn Whittaker warned parents not to leave their children alone in potentially dangerous situations.

“If (the mother) had not gone downstairs this tragedy would never have happened and that will live with her for the rest of her life,” he said.

“All deaths of little children are charged with tragedy and none more so than this case which is compounded by the benefit of hindsight in a case which was clearly an avoidable death.

“Little children should not be left alone in such a situation.” He described the mother as “compassionate, caring and loving”.

“I am satisfied that (the girl) died from a severe scalding injury which caused severe shock and which were by their gravity non-survivable injuries,” he said.

The mother, who also cannot be named, left the girls alone in the bath for a few minutes as she took their worn clothes downstairs to the washing machine and threw a dirty nappy away.

Mr Whittaker said: “I take the view that after mum went downstairs (the older sister) who has been known to turn the tap on before, turned it on again.”

He said that she would have “instinctively” climbed out of the bath when it started hurting, leaving her sister in the hot water.

The mother said that after taking the clothes and the nappy downstairs, she heard her eldest girl “screaming”.

She told police she ran upstairs and saw the younger girl lying face down in the bath with the hot tap running.“It was red hot. She was lying on her stomach in the water,” she told the inquest yesterday.

“I lifted her up and lay her down on the floor. I didn’t know what to do, I panicked.”

The coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure.