The manager of a Scots nursery where a baby boy choked to death has been convicted of failing to ensure children were adequately monitored during mealtimes.
Miranda Anderson was found guilty on Thursday after a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in the wake of the tragic death of ten-month-old Fox Goulding.
The 48-year-old was in charge at the city’s Bright Horizons Corstorphine Nursery when Fox fatally choked on a piece of mango.
Anderson denied the charge and the court previously heard how she’d warned her bosses about staffing levels at the facility.
The Bright Horizons chain was fined £800,000 in January after admitting it failed to provide nursery employees with suitable instruction and supervision to adequately control the risk of choking when youngsters ate.
But Sheriff Douglas Keir found Anderson, of Dunfermline, Fife, guilty after finding she’d failed to take reasonable care over health and safety.
Anderson was fined £2000.
Fox died after choking on mango while unsupervised for “several minutes” during dinner.
The court previously heard how a nursery nurse sitting next to Fox during mealtime had left the room to go to the toilet.
Upon her return, she thought the tot was sleeping before realising he wasn’t breathing and began slapping his back to dislodge any food.
Fox was taken to hospital but died the following day.
The Goulding family’s lawyer Glen Millar, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, made a statement on behalf of Fox’s parents following the verdict.
It said: “The family are grateful for the efforts of the Crown but a further guilty verdict in this case gives them no satisfaction and they remain numb and disbelieving that this could ever have happened to their beloved son.
“There is nothing that the sheriff could do in sentencing that would in any way reflect the pain they feel or adequately address the senseless loss of Fox.”
Nursery staff had called for an ambulance and Miranda made desperate attempts to give Fox CPR.
Fox was taken to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh but died the next day.
Anderson was convicted of failing to take reasonable care to oversee health and safety at the nursery between June 3 and July 9 2019.
Her trial began in May before resuming this week.
The court previously heard how Anderson flagged up worries about staff turnover and the nursery chain deployed extra workers to help cover shortfalls.
The trial was told that support plan was withdrawn around two months before Fox’s death.
Eilidh Sayers, a worker who was temporarily assigned to the nursery, gave evidence that it had been “suffering from extreme staff shortages and recruitment problems”.
She was later shown CCTV of under two’s eating unsupervised while Anderson walked across the “baby room” a number of times.
A nursery manager herself, Eilidh she would’ve noticed and directed staff to observe the mealtime, while the general supervision shown was “not good practice”.
Eilidh, who was a regional field lead for Bright Horizons in 2019, said there should be a ratio of one staff member supervising every three children.
She said nursery workers should be seated with children during meals “to prevent incidents such as choking”.
Witness Kirsty Mann, a quality development manager with Bright Horizons in 2019, told how Anderson raised “concerns about staff turnover” in February that year.
Kirsty acknowledged it was a “real concern” and a problem felt industry-wide, and a support plan was drawn up with more staff sent in.
She said Anderson was “confident” the support could be withdrawn following a meeting on May 21.
Kirsty said no deputy manger was in place at the nursery at the time. Under cross examination by Barry Smith QC, defending, she agreed Anderson was a “diligent and effective manager” who made “child welfare and safety a priority”.
Witness Pauline Cant, a field manager with Bright Horizons in 2019, said it was “critical” to monitor children at mealtimes as choking on food was “a very real danger”.
