A council’s social work policies were not followed in the case of a 13-year-old girl who died after her mum went to the pub.
Robyn Goldie, from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, developed peritonitis and died in July 2018 after her mother Sharron Goldie failed to seek medical treatment for her.
Goldie was jailed for three years and six months in October 2020 after pleading guilty to wilful ill-treatment and neglect of her daughter between July 2017 and July 2018.
A fatal accident inquiry has now ruled North Lanarkshire Council should have had child protection measures in place at an earlier stage before Robyn’s death.
Robyn Goldie died after suffering a perforated duodenal ulcer. The teenager had tried to get medical help the week before, but her mother had stopped her.
On 26 July she was left in pain but Goldie simply gave her a painkiller and went to the pub.
When she returned later Robyn was slumped on the sofa, but Goldie and a friend went to drink in the garden instead.
Around an hour later Robyn was dead.
She had perotinitis, an inflammation of the lining of the abdomen, often caused by a bacterial or fungal infection.
Sheriff Linda Nicolson said that was no written comprehensive assessment of the risks faced by Robyn, which would have included an assessment of Sharron Goldie’s mental capacity following a brain injury.
There was also no written child’s plan or adequate supervision of workers.
The sheriff said child protection measures should have been put in place, and a referral made to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration at an earlier stage than they were.
She ruled that a reasonable precaution which might have prevented the death would have been for Robyn’s mother to seek or allow her daughter access to medical attention.
Robyn had lived with her grandmother from the age of four until she was 12.
The decision was made without the family notifying social work services, and the council’s team became involved in her life again in September 2017.
Social work services were made aware of a number of issues with Robyn’s care, including physical assaults, emotional abuse, physical neglect and truancy from school.
They encouraged Goldie to take part in parenting courses and made arrangements for Robyn to stay with her grandmother at weekends.
In her 2020 trial, Goldie admitted failing to provide her daughter with adequate food, clothing or heating, hitting her, and permitting her to smoke cannabis and drink alcohol.
She also pleaded guilty to exposing her to unhygienic living conditions including cat urine and cat faeces, which led to her getting fleas.
In the days leading up to her death, the 13-year-old complained to her mother about pain in her legs and stomach. She had also vomited and was unable to eat for several days.
On 24 July 2018, Robyn told her mother that she was seriously unwell and needed an ambulance, but Ms Goldie refused to call one.
She called a taxi to take her to hospital, but Ms Goldie prevented her from getting in the taxi and told a friend her daughter was “attention seeking.”
The following day, a neighbour spoke to Robyn in the garden and she said ‘help me, I cannae breathe, get me an ambulance’. Her mother told Robyn to get back into the house.
Sheriff Nicolson made no recommendations as North Lanarkshire Council already implemented a number of changes following Robyn’s death.
