"The mother had not been constantly supervising the child."
A 17-month-old baby girl drowned in a bath after her mother left her unsupervised at their home in Stoke-on-Trent. Her mother has now admitted to the offence.
Aarazoo Tawfeeq, aged 36, had left her daughter to go downstairs.
Alia Tawfeeq was pronounced dead at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in January 2017.
A post-mortem examination revealed that the baby’s death was “consistent with drowning”.
The inquest into Alia’s death has now formally reached a conclusion after Aarazoo pleaded guilty to cruelty to a child.
Speaking at the inquest, assistant coroner Sarah Murphy said:
“The deceased was in the bath while her mother was downstairs.
“The mother had not been constantly supervising the child. The cause of death was drowning.”
An inquest into the child’s death had been adjourned at North Staffordshire Coroner’s Court in April 2017, pending a decision from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as to whether criminal charges would be brought in the case.
In 2018, Ms Tawfeeq was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence in relation to the death of her baby girl.
She was set to go on trial in September 2019, however, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of cruelty to a child on September 17.
The CPS accepted her guilty plea.
The offence includes instances of neglect and failure to protect a child as well as cases involving assault and ill-treatment.
Ms Tawfeeq had been living at Alderley Rise in Burslem at the time of Alia’s death.
The Stoke Sentinel reported that she received a nine-month custodial sentence which was suspended for 12 months.
Ms Murphy added:
“Given the criminal proceedings where the facts surrounding the death have been heard in public I do not find sufficient reason to resume the inquest.
“That concludes matters regarding the very sad death of Alia Tawfeeq.”
In a high-profile instance of child cruelty, Syeda Begum was found guilty of shaking a baby she was supposed to be looking after.
She was employed as a babysitter by the child’s family so that they could continue running their business in Aberdeen.
However, on New Year’s Day 2017, Begum called the child’s parents to tell them that something was wrong.
The baby’s mother found her child “floppy and blue” at Begum’s flat.
The mother said: “She was breathing very heavily and was floppy. She never opened her eyes.”
Doctors found she had bleeding on the brain and was also bleeding from her eyes.
The child suffered seizures in the days afterwards and was not fit to return home for almost two weeks.
Doctors have said that the girl, now aged two, “potentially could” have problems with intelligence, learning, memory and concentration.
In April 2019, Begum was jailed for three years.
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