Baby-killer childminder was a disability benefits cheat
A childminder who shook a baby boy to death, lied in her benefits application by claiming she was too crippled by pain to work.
At the same time, Karen Foster had told Ofsted there was nothing about her health that prevented her from safely caring for children.
Foster, 63, was jailed for 12 years and seven months on Thursday after admitting manslaughter, having caused nine-month-old Harlow Collinge unsurvivable brain injuries.
Preston Crown Court heard that after Harlow was taken away by ambulance Foster hugged his mother, Gemma, at the hospital and claimed she had tried to resuscitate him after he began choking on pasta.
She later tried to blame Ms Collinge for the baby’s injuries.
Harlow, who was injured on March 1, 2022, died days later in his parents’ arms having suffered massive brain injuries.
The court heard that Forster had told Ofsted in 2014 there was nothing about her health that prevented her from safely caring for children.
However, in 2018 she stated in her application for Personal Independence Payment that she felt constantly drowsy and tired, and could barely move, or safely carry out daily living activities.
Mr Justice Barry Cotter said Foster repeated those lies in her 2022 application, just days before Harlow’s death.
He said: “In that application you described overwhelming fatigue, having excruciating pain in your feet, that you needed help going to the toilet and that you could no longer cook or even cut up your own food. So others had to provide care for you. This description was a world away from you caring for others, let alone children.”
The jury was told that despite claiming benefits for ill health, Foster was a registered childminder who had breached Ofsted rules on the numbers and ages of children she should be caring for, so that she could make more money from parents.
Foster had been accused of murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter just before her trial started last week.
Repeated lies
Judge Cotter said she had repeatedly lied about what happened to Harlow while he was in her care.
Expert analysis found that the baby boy had suffered widespread brain damage, caused by a serious head injury, which led to cardio-respiratory arrest, and that his injuries were consistent having been severely shaken,
Harlow also suffered bleeding into the spinal column nerve roots down the length of his spine, injuries commonly associated with the vigorous shaking.
Judge Cotter said: “Despite the overwhelming evidence against you it was only on the morning of the trial that you admitted assaulting Harlow that morning by violently shaking him.”
‘Parents face a life sentence’
Sentencing Foster, the judge told her that no prison term could make up for the death of Harlow, whose parents now faced a life sentence of their own.
He told her: “For his parents, siblings and grandparents, Harlow was a little treasure and his loss is a tragedy, the effects of which will never diminish.
“Nothing can be said or done to ease what is a life sentence of grief for them. The sentence I will impose on you will come to an end – theirs never will.”
He said: “You are guilty of the manslaughter of a healthy 10-month-old-boy by shaking him so violently as to cause devastating brain injury.
“You well knew that shaking such a young child carried an obvious and high risk of death or really serious harm, and in the moment when you lost your temper you intended to cause him only just short of really serious harm.”
Judge Cotter added: “You chose to put financial gain before a young child’s welfare, you breached trust and you reacted with violence to his normal behaviour, causing his death. I have not seen evidence of genuine remorse.”
Mother racked with guilt
In her victim impact statement Ms Collinge told the court she felt “guilt” about “all the red flags I missed” about the number of children Foster was looking after.
Describing the childminder as “despicable” she said: “She even put her arms around me. I can’t think of anything more evil. I blame myself every day for my son’s death. This monster, Karen Foster, deserves nothing. I hope her actions haunt her.”
Ms Collinge sat weeping in the public gallery while her statement was read out, alongside Harlow’s father, Allen Frangleton, his older siblings and wider family.
As Foster was led away from the dock after being sentenced, relatives of the baby shouted: “Scumbag b----! I hate you!”