The parents of a baby girl killed by a negligent nursery worker have revealed the devastating moment they realised she was going to die.
Genevieve Meehan was strapped face-down on a bean bag for more than 90 minutes by Tiny Toes nursery deputy manager Kate Roughley in May 2022.
The nine-month-old, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was rushed to hospital but tragically died from asphyxiation.
Her parents, solicitor Katie Wheeler and barrister John Meehan, said life without their daughter is ‘unbearable’.
It comes as the latest Ofsted figures show a shocking rise in nursery-aged children being harmed or killed by caregivers
Detailing the heartbreaking moment the nursery called her, Ms Wheeler said: ‘The woman on the phone said to me that they’d gone to wake Genevieve up from her sleep and she was limp and blue.
‘And you think in those moments, that’s my little girl, and she felt so far away.’
She continued: ‘I got to the hospital and there she was, a tiny little person. She was surrounded by so many doctors and I felt absolutely desperate.
‘They asked us to go into a side room, and I knew then what they were going to say.’
Doctors said they had been ‘trying for 40 minutes’ and there was ‘nothing more’ they could do, so told Ms Wheeler she ‘should go and hold her hand’.
‘You’re holding her and just willing for it to be different. I couldn’t understand how a baby of Genevieve’s age could go to sleep for a nap in the afternoon and then not wake up,’ the heartbroken mother added.
There have been almost 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in nurseries in England in the past five years, which is a 40 per cent rise from the previous five years, the BBC found.
This is average of around 75 ‘significant events’ reported to Ofsted per week, including incidents of serious injury or significant harm. Some rare cases have even involved death.
The latest figures for serious incidents in the year 2023-24 are 40% higher than five years previously.
Ofsted says the rise could partly be down to its increased efforts to ensure such events are reported by nurseries.
Nurseries reported over 4,200 serious childcare incidents in 2023-24, compared with 3,021 in 2019-20, according to figures from Ofsted, who say these reports were assessed as urgent.
Incidents ranged from injuries or illnesses, to serious accidents and deaths. They also include events on nursery premises, such as fires or floods.
The Early Years Alliance said the broad criteria for reporting could mean nursery workers ‘err on the side of caution’, adding this means investigations often find a safeguarding breach didn’t occur.
However, child care experts say the rise highlights a ‘dire situation’ and Genevieve Meehan’s parents are calling for more frequent Ofsted inspections in nurseries and for inspectors to check CCTV, which is not current practice. They also want parents to have access to the CCTV in their child’s nursery.
More than 20 current or former nursery workers, from different areas across England, told the BBC they had witnessed poor care with many blaming frequent short-staffing as a factor in children being put at risk.
The BBC said the CCTV footage of the baby room where Genevieve was killed is too distressing to broadcast in full. It shows Kate Roughley strapping the baby girl’s face down to the beanbag.
DCI Charlotte Whalley said: ‘She got a blanket and threw it over the bean bag and then dumped Genevieve on her front on the bean bag – that’s the only word I can use really it was just this “boof”.’
BBC reporter Hayley Hassal watched the harrowing footage and said: ‘You can tell that Genevieve is really distressed. She’s crying and trying to raise her head up.
‘She [Roughley] checks on her about two times about two times in the next hour or so. But she doesn’t get very close.
‘And then, after about an hour, you can tell that Genevieve isn’t moving anymore.’
DCI Charlotte Whalley continued: ‘She doesn’t get found for approximately 45 minutes after that, when Kate finds her, goes to wake her up, you know from watching the body language of Kate that something is wrong.
‘She flips Genevieve on to her side and then runs out the room.’
Genevieve’s mother, Ms Wheeler, said: ‘When I sent her to nursery, I never in a million years thought that anything like this would happen.
‘I completely lost who I was, that night in hospital, holding her.’
Her father, Mr Meehan, revealed Roughley had become ‘increasingly exasperated’ with Genevieve and resulted to calling the baby girl names, including ‘vile’, and even made up twisted songs.
Roughley, who was the manager of the baby room, was jailed for 14 years in May 2024 after being found guilty of Genevieve’s manslaughter.
She stared straight ahead as she was sentenced for what Mrs Justice Ellenbogen described as a ‘callous’ act and was emotionless as she left the dock.
Manchester Crown Court heard Genevieve suffered fatal asphyxia and pathophysiological stress caused by the ‘unsafe sleep environment’ at Tiny Toes nursery in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, on May 9, 2022.
During a month-long trial, jurors heard the 38-year-old displayed a ‘lack of sympathy’ towards children – labelling Genevieve ‘vile’, a ‘whinger’ and a ‘diva’, and treating the baby roughly before she put her 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.
Roughley, who had 17 years’ experience as a nursery worker but no children of her own, then ‘lied’ to cover up what she’d done, claiming she constantly checked on babies in her care.
In August 2024, another Tiny Toes nursery worker, Rebecca Gregory – who is a close friend of Roughley – admitted to four charges of child neglect, relating to different children.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard she swaddled the four ‘vulnerable’ victims, putting one child face down while he had a dummy in his mouth and ‘threatening to kick’ another.
Tom Challinor, prosecuting, said Gregory was seen mistreating the children on CCTV, which was being reviewed by officers conducting investigations into the death of Genevieve.