A mother has been jailed for child cruelty after her two-year-old son drowned in a pond – while she looked at Facebook on her phone.
Claire Barnett, 31, was looking at social media on her mobile phone while tragic Joshua played in the garden.
The tot fell into the garden pond at their home in Beverley, East Yorks., on March 17, last year, and despite attempts to save Joshua he died later that day in hospital.
Barnett was jailed for five years at Hull Crown Court on October 9 and slammed by a judge for her “bad parenting.”
The court heard Barnett, who has since moved to Nottingham, was questioned by police and told them varying accounts of what happened in the garden
The court also heard how Barnett had let Joshua play out in the road when she lived in Hull in August 2013.
Neighbours contacted social services after he narrowly avoided being hit by a car.
Barnett pleaded guilty to four counts of child cruelty.
Judge Jeremy Richardson told her: “Your son died due to your neglectful conduct. You will have to live with that for the remainder of your life.
“For a parent to behave as you did, repeatedly, amounts to consistently bad parenting.
“I trust that you will never be allowed to have further unsupervised contact to any child.”
“If you should have any further children, they will almost certainly be removed from you.
“You pose very serious risks to any child for whom you might have responsibility.”
