‘Callous’ nursery worker faces a lengthy jail term for manslaughter.
Jurors found Kate Roughley guilty of killing nine-month-old daughter Genevieve Meehan – known as ‘Gigi’.
Details of What Happened
Roughley is due to receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment over the ‘ill-treatment’ of Genevieve who was left for over 90 minutes before being found ‘unresponsive and blue’.
The 37-year-old worker was said to have ignored the ‘serious and obvious’ risks of strapping a baby face down on a bean bag to sleep.
CCTV even showed her ignoring the youngster’s crying and desperate last movements as she struggled to survive while tightly strapped to the bean bag, swaddled in a blanket.
Parents John and Katie Meehan spoke for the first time about the loss of their children.
Tribute
Mr Meehan said: ‘We will never forgive the callousness of Kate Roughley’s actions. She was entrusted with the care of or our daughter but instead she treated her with contempt.’
Mr Meehan, stood with his tearful solicitor wife Katie, paid tribute to their daughter who ‘loved life, to play the tambourine, spend time with her big sister’, and was ‘kind, infectious and mischievous’.
‘We loved every day watching her develop. We’ll never accept the cruelty of her life being taken away,’ he said. ‘Her life was full of promise and wonder, and it was taken.
‘Genevieve’s loss has destroyed our family and we grieve for her every day. We’re desperate to see her smile, see her laugh and feel her warm embrace.’
Mr Meehan said he and his wife do not want to see her defined by the manner of Genevieve’s death and that ‘our beautiful daughter deserves to be remembered for the wonderful person she was.’
During a month-long trial, jurors heard Roughley displayed a ‘lack of sympathy’ towards children – labelling Genevieve ‘vile’, a ‘whinger’ and a ‘diva’.
