TRIGGER WARNING: This text could possibly be confronting to some.
Robyn Goldie was a vigorous younger lady with a brilliant future forward of her. Nonetheless, her life took a devastating flip when she grew to become critically unwell. Whereas watching tv, Robyn’s well being deteriorated. Sadly, her mom, Sharon, didn’t take critically the severity of her situation, considering Robyn was exaggerating her signs. Because of this, Robyn didn’t obtain the assistance she desperately wanted.
Whereas her mom was out consuming with mates, Robyn succumbed to her situation and handed away whereas watching Tipping Level on TV, on their lonesome.
A Little Lady’s Cries For Assist
On the day she died, Robyn Goldie informed her mum she wasn’t feeling effectively, however her mum brushed it off, considering she was simply being dramatic or on the lookout for consideration. This left Robyn feeling scared and alone, resulting in a heartbreaking end result.
“I informed her solely folks with coronary heart assaults want ambulances and I didn’t assume it was a hospital job. I believed it was a abdomen bug and paracetamol and ibuprofen could be what the physician would give her,” her mom mentioned throughout a deadly accident inquiry.
July 24: Robyn was pale and visibly shaking.
July 25: Sharon prevented Robyn from receiving care after a buddy provided to drive the teenager to the hospital. The teen was begging for assist, saying she couldn’t breathe however her mom got here exterior and intervened.
July 26: Robyn was gone.
After coming back from an evening on the pub, Sharon noticed her daughter slumped on the couch. She then sat in her backyard, consuming with a buddy, whereas Robyn’s well being deteriorated. Tragically, as an alternative of receiving the medical consideration she wanted, Robyn remained on the sofa, feeling more and more determined and remoted.
Her mum’s buddy Jim Duffy checked in on the teenager to find she wasn’t respiration, and rigor mortis had begun to set in. Robyn had succumbed to a perforated duodenal ulcer on account of a peritonitis an infection of her abdomen.
Inquiry Revelations
Sadly, this incident wasn’t the primary terrible factor Robyn had skilled. The inquiry revealed Robyn’s life was removed from idyllic.
Robyn’s mum has allegedly failed to supply her daughter with sufficient meals, clothes, and heating. She was accused of hitting her daughter and permitting her to drink alcohol and smoke hashish. Robyn had been uncovered to unhygienic situations, together with cat urine, faeces, and fleas.
The inquiry claims Sharon prevented Robyn from reporting a sexual assault by telling her she “could be examined by medical doctors, have so much to do with the courtroom and the press would then get entangled and it will observe her about all of her life.”
The inquiry additionally realized that Sharon typically uncovered 13-year-old Robyn to her intercourse life by eradicating Robyn’s bed room door.
Pleading responsible to wilful ill-treatment and neglect, Robyn’s mom was jailed for 3 years and 6 months.
At Goldie’s sentencing, Lord Beckett mentioned:
“Your daughter was in ache that afternoon, you gave her a painkiller and went to the pub. By the point you got here house, she was slumped on the couch, however you and your buddy went into the backyard to have a drink as a result of the climate was good. She was useless an hour later.”
Let Down By The System
It was found that social staff confirmed a “lack of urgency” in addressing the worsening points on the household house. As an alternative of prioritising the necessity for correct parental care, they tried to assist Robyn “obtain her personal security.”
After residing together with her grandmother for eight years, Robyn was returned to her mom.
Maggie Mellon, 70, an impartial social employee concerned within the case, mentioned: “The largest query was whether or not she might safely keep in her mom’s care, and it was thought she could possibly be made protected via recommendation and steering.”
Robyn Goldie’s tragic story is a heartbreaking reminder of the important significance of listening to youngsters and recognising their wants. Her vibrant spirit was silenced far too quickly as a result of a collection of failures—each private and systemic—that ought to by no means have occurred.
No youngster ought to ever really feel invisible or uncared for, and we should try to create an setting the place each youngster’s voice is heard, valued, and guarded. Robyn’s reminiscence serves as a robust name to motion for change, making certain that no different youngster suffers in silence as she did.
What to learn subsequent
