Ruth Auta was caught in a lie after she claimed to have left her son with a childminder when she left for her nursing shift at a Bolton hospital on December 20, 2022
By Damon Wilkinson and Liam Doyle
Prosecutors have slammed a mum’s “terrible decision” to leave her 10-week-old baby home alone while she went to work as a nurse.
Ruth Auta, 28, left her two-and-a-half month son Joshua unattended at her home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, to work an eight-hour shift at Royal Bolton Hospital. She left the nurses’ accommodation and travelled to work at around 6.30am, and returned later to find her son was no longer breathing.
She called paramedics, but they weren’t able to resuscitate the tot, who was pronounced dead at the scene, with police later arriving to take her statement. But she initially lied to officers, telling them she had collected Joshua from a childminder before returning home, feeding him, and putting him to bed in his cot.
The mum left her baby to work at Royal Bolton Hospital (Image: MEN Media)
Bolton Crown Court heard that Auta was captured on CCTV leaving her accommodation on the morning of December 20, 2022, and returning eight hours later. The Manchester Evening News reported that her childminder told officers she had not seen baby Joshua for several days.1010
Experts said during proceedings that they could not determine the cause of the 10-week-old’s death, adding he was a healthy baby in all respects. The tot may have overheated due to several layers of clothing and bedding in which he was wrapped, they added, but the experts were unable to rule out any additional causes of death.
Auta was charged with cruelty to a child and entered a guilty plea at Manchester magistrates’ court on May 24. She was arrested not long later on June 6 while attempting to board a flight to Nigeria, having bought a one-way ticket to the African nation. She was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to three years behind bars.
The mum was captured on CCTV returning from her shift (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Sara Davie, district crown prosecutor for CPS North West said in a statement following the ruling that Auta “should have known the dangers” of leaving her baby alone, adding that she “must live with the terrible consequences made that day”. She said: “Whilst she went to work to provide care for other people, Ruth Auta left the very person who needed her care the most home alone.
“As a nurse, she should have known the dangers of leaving her baby unattended. As she begins her sentence, she must now live with the consequences of the terrible decision she made that day. Auta has failed to show remorse throughout the case; she misled police about her childcare arrangements and then tried to evade justice by attempting to flee the country. Our thoughts and sympathies are with all those who have been affected by Joshua’s death.”
Credits: Daily Mirror
