Social workers displayed a 'lack of urgency' over the problems a teenage girl left to die by her mum was facing, a report has found.
Robyn Goldie developed peritonitis and died at her home in Wishaw in July 2018 having suffered a perforated duodenal ulcer.
The 13-year-old had suffered harrowing neglect and physical assaults at the hands of mum, Sharon Goldie, in the years leading up to her death.
The 46-year-old was jailed for three-and-a-half years for failing to seek medical treatment for the teen.
In a case review commissioned by North Lanarkshire Child Protection Committee, it was found that social workers displayed a “lack of urgency” over escalating problems at the family home, reports the Daily Record.
Instead, they put too much emphasis on trying to assist Robyn in “achieving her own safety” rather than focusing on a lack of parental care.
The report highlighted how Robyn and her mother were “living like siblings”, with the youngster frequently missing school.
Social workers believed the family’s difficulties could be “speedily resolved” despite police being regularly called to their home and Robyn enduring physical assaults.
The SCR concluded some information-sharing practices were “not working effectively” and needed improvement.
Sharon Goldie was originally charged with killing her daughter but prosecutors accepted a not guilty plea to a culpable homicide charge.
She admitted wilfully ill-treating and neglecting Robyn between July 2017 and July 2018. During that period, Goldie hit Robyn, pulled her hair, bit her and spat at her, and prevented her from getting timely and adequate medical treatment.
Robyn had begged for her help in the days leading to her death, complaining she was “hurting all over”. But Goldie accused her of “attention-seeking”.
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The mum went to a pub on the day of her daughter’s death and returned to find her lying slumped across a sofa.
Robyn had previously enjoyed a stable life living with her gran but was returned to her mum’s care in 2017.
Sentencing her in October 2020, judge Lord Beckett said it was “troubling to learn from the narrative that warning signs were picked up at school, by neighbours and social workers and yet this situation was allowed to continue for more than a year”.
The case review found social workers and cops “responded frequently to the family” during November and December 2017 and both agencies “noted physical assaults on Anne”.
It said “there is evidence that professionals took each incident seriously” but they were “largely absorbed into the existing narrative of ‘mutual adjustment’ rather than reframed as an emerging pattern of problematic interaction”.
By May 2018, the report found social workers were showing a “lack of urgency and an inappropriate allocation of responsibility for achieving her own safety to (Robyn)”.
Marian Martin, independent Chair of the North Lanarkshire Child Protection Committee, said: “While the death of (Robyn) from an acute medical condition may not have been predictable, the report identifies some missed opportunities across services to provide more effective support to (Robyn).”
