A 14-month-old boy who died 'alone, scared and in pain' at a Dudley nursery had a ruptured colon, a court has heard. Noah Sibanda was found unresponsive at Fairytales Day Nursery on December 9, 2022, two hours after his key worker Kimberley Cookson tried to make him fall asleep.
The youngster had been wrapped 'tightly' in a sleeping bag and placed face down in a tepee with a blanket over his head. Although Noah 'clearly wasn't tired' having woken from a morning nap less than an hour earlier, Cookson 'continued to forcefully pat him to sleep' and put her leg over him for seven minutes to restrain him.
No Physical Check for Two Hours
Noah was not physically checked on for two hours. When he was, emergency services were called as he was not breathing. The tot was tragically pronounced dead at hospital at 4.15pm. Noah's cause of death was given as sudden death in temporal association with restraint.
Combination of Factors
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard a 'combination of factors may have resulted in Noah's sudden death'. Prosecutor John Elvidge listed them: physical restraint, abdominal trauma with modest bleeding into the peritoneum, external splinting of the chest or abdomen from tight wrapping, prone positioning increasing risk of positional asphyxiation, possible hypothermia or overheating from covering, and possible carbon dioxide trapping if head and face were covered.
Noah's mother, Masi, previously told BirminghamLive that post-mortem examinations revealed his colon had been ruptured. Detective Inspector Carla Thompson from West Midlands Police confirmed: 'He did have a ruptured colon but we don't know what caused it. His cause of death was multifaceted.'
Unsafe Sleeping Practices
The investigating officer said Noah's death was initially treated as sudden unexpected death. Ofsted carried out an inspection, and police uncovered unsafe sleeping practices. 'We watched hours of CCTV footage, not just of that day but also the days prior. Those unsafe sleeping practices were going on with other children as well as Noah,' she said.
Cookson, 23, from Dudley, has been jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter. Fairytales Day Nursery Limited was fined £240,000 for corporate manslaughter and failing to comply with health and safety duties, plus £56,000 costs. Nursery director Deborah Latewood, 55, admitted failing to comply with general duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act, on the basis she did not know children were put down to sleep dangerously, and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years. The nursery, in Bourne Street, Dudley, has been permanently closed.
