A mother left her dying daughter watching quiz show Tipping Point while she went to the pub, an inquest has heard.
Sharon Goldie, 49, ‘refused’ to take her seriously ill daughter Robyn, 13, to hospital and left her in front of the TV to go drinking in the pub. When she returned to her home in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Robyn was unconscious on the sofa, the inquest into the fatal crash heard.
Despite this, Goldie continued to drink outside with his friend Jim Duffy until he discovered Robyn had stopped breathing and rigor mortis had set in – referring to a post-mortem muscle stiffness. But at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Goldie insisted he believed Robyn was “overreacting” and claimed: “I thought she was getting better and didn’t need to go to hospital.
“I told her that only people with heart attacks need ambulances and I didn’t think it was a hospital job. I thought it was a stomach virus and that paracetamol and ibuprofen would be what the doctor would give her.”
Doctors discovered later that Robyn developed peritonitis and then suffered a perforated duodenal ulcer. Goldie continued: “I knew she wasn’t well but I didn’t think she needed an ambulance.
“I left her watching Tipping Point, lying on the couch, she liked Tipping Point, and I locked the door behind me and left.”
Goldie, from Kilsyth, was jailed for three years and six months in 2020 after admitting intentional mistreatment and neglect between July 2017 and July 2018.
She admitted not having provided Robyn with adequate food, clothing or warmth, beating her and allowing her to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol.
She also pleaded guilty to exposing her to unhygienic living conditions, including cat urine and feces, which caused her to get fleas.
The inquest had previously heard allegations that Goldie told Robyn not to report an alleged rape as it would lead to her being examined by doctors and having to go to court.
Goldie said Robyn was “bragging” that she was “no longer a virgin” following the alleged assault of a 14-year-old boy in a caravan near Bellshill, Lanarkshire. She said: “She was bragging about it, it wasn’t a complaint, but I was having to try and calm myself down because my blood was boiling.
“I told her she would be examined by doctors, have a lot to do with the court and that the press would be involved and follow her throughout her life.”
The Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, ordered the inquiry after ruling that the circumstances gave rise to “serious public concern”.
The investigation before Sheriff Linda Nicolson continues.