Mother guilty of murder after scalding her 19-month-old daughter and leaving her in pain for an hour

A mother who scalded her 19-month-old daughter and left her to scream in pain has been found guilty of her murder.

Katie Crowder spent an hour covering her tracks while Gracie Crowder died after suffering deep burns to 65% of her body, Nottingham Crown Court heard previously.

It was alleged Crowder murdered her by exposing her to hot water on 6 March. A pathologist said Gracie would have cried out “vigorously” and suffered organ failure for an hour.

Crowder, who denied murder, then went to her parents’ house on the same road in Mansfield, sounding “panicked” and telling them “she’s dead, she’s dead”.

Jurors were previously told that Crowder’s mother asked “what the hell have you done” to which the defendant said she “found her like this”.

Crowder was convicted of murder on Tuesday, and wept in the dock as the verdict was read out.

Prosecutors told the court that she appeared to have taken cocaine about an hour before the child’s death.

Crowder told police she was cleaning up dog mess when she found her daughter face down in the bathroom, the court heard.

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Prosecutor Sally Howes QC said: “It is the Crown’s case that you can be sure Gracie Crowder was killed by a deliberate and unlawful act by her mother.

“Gracie Crowder’s death was not an instant death. It would have taken in the region of one hour for her to die.

“You may ask – why the delay in calling for help?

“It is the Crown’s case that the delay was Katie Crowder covering her tracks – she knew what she had done.

“She was clearing up, she was clearing away, she was thinking about a way of explaining what she had done.”

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In the past, the court heard Crowder had said of her daughter: “I need to get her to nursery, I never get a break at all.”

She denied hurting her after being arrested at hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

Crowder will be sentenced at a later date.

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