A mother left her dying daughter to watch TV quiz show Tipping Point while she went to the pub, an inquiry heard.
Sharon Goldie, 49, ‘refused’ to take her gravely ill daughter Robyn, 13, to hospital and left her in front of the TV to go drinking at the pub. When she returned to their home in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Robyn was unresponsive on the couch, according to the fatal accident inquiry.
Despite this, Goldie continued to drink outside with her friend Jim Duffy until he discovered that Robyn had stopped breathing and rigor mortis had set in – referring to a post-death muscle stiffness. But at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Goldie insisted that she believed Robyn was ‘exaggerating’ and claimed: “I thought she was getting better and didn’t need to go to hospital.
“I told her only people with heart attacks need ambulances and I didn’t think it was a hospital job. I thought it was a stomach bug and paracetamol and ibuprofen would be what the doctor would give her.”
Medics later discovered that Robyn had developed peritonitis and then suffered a perforated duodenal ulcer. Goldie continued: “I knew she was unwell but didn’t think she needed an ambulance.
“I left her watching Tipping Point doubled up on the couch, she liked Tipping Point, and I locked the door behind me and left.”
Goldie, of Kilsyth, was jailed for three years and six months in 2020 after admitting wilful ill treatment and neglect between July 2017 and July 2018.
She admitted failing to provide Robyn with adequate food, clothing or heating, hitting her and permitting her to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol.
She also pled guilty to exposing her to unhygienic living conditions including cat urine and cat faeces which led to her getting fleas.
The inquiry had earlier heard claims Goldie told Robyn not to report an alleged rape as it would lead to her being examined by doctors and having to go to court.
Goldie said Robyn was ‘boasting’ that she was ‘no longer a virgin’ in the aftermath of the alleged assault by a 14-year-old boy in a caravan near Bellshill, Lanarkshire. She said: “She was boasting about it, it wasn’t a complaint but I was having to try and calm myself down because my blood was boiling.
“I told her she would be examined by doctors, have a lot to do with the court and the press would then get involved and it would follow her about all of her life.”
The Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, ordered the inquiry after ruling the circumstances gave rise to ‘serious public concern’.
The probe before Sheriff Linda Nicolson continues.
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