A three-year jail sentence has been imposed on an NHS nurse who abandoned her ten-week-old infant to die as she went to work. On December 20, 2022, Ruth Auta, a 28-year-old single mother, left Joshua Akerele alone in her nursing home for eight hours to work her shift. He passed away a little more than an hour after she called for an ambulance despite efforts to revive him. Auta attempted to leave the country after being detained and given bail, but she was arrested again while purchasing a one-way ticket to Nigeria.
Joshua was a healthy baby, and the court hearing revealed that there was no definitive cause of death for him. The layers of clothes and bedding he was covered in may have caused him to overheat, the court heard, but other possible causes of death could not be ruled out. At first, Auta, who does not have a fixed address, told Greater Manchester Police that she had picked up Joshua from a childminder on December 20 after work. She said she had fallen asleep next to him and woke up to find him unconscious.
However, investigators collected CCTV footage showing Auta leaving her flat without Joshua at 06:47 and coming home by herself at 15:13. She had urged the childminder to notify the police that she had seen Joshua that day. Still, according to messages discovered on her phone, the childminder informed them she had not seen the infant in a few days. Before moving to Britain to pursue training with the NHS, Auta completed three years of nursing school in her home country of Nigeria. Then, on October 22, 2022, she gave birth to Joshua at Royal Bolton Hospital in Greater Manchester after going into labour in the middle of a shift.
Vanessa Thomson, the prosecutor, stated: “She did not disclose that she was pregnant when she came to the UK to complete her training.”If she had done so, she would not have been allowed to work on hospital wards. The court was informed that Auta was detained at Gatwick Airport on June 6 this year while attempting to catch an aircraft to Nigeria. It was a one-way ticket she had bought. “Ms Auta was sectioned for a period of 14 days in hospital, which allowed her to stay for an additional week,” Ellie Akhgar, who was defending, stated.
According to a clinical study written after Joshua passed away, Auta may have had postpartum depression during a depressive episode. According to the doctor, she called the time after his birth “awful,” claiming she “could not be happy,” “extremely sad,” and “lonely and isolated.” Ms Akhgar continued, “Auta made about £1,600 a month after paying £750 for rent and £50 a day for a childminder.” The statement read that she acknowledged her transgression, which goes beyond the custodial level. She will bear the burden of this immense sorrow for the rest of her life.
“The defendant left Joshua, who was just over ten weeks old, for a period of over eight hours,” Judge Nicholas Clarke KC concluded. He had no means of assistance as a newborn. This 10-week-old infant could not have survived on his own for the more than eight hours that you ignored him; he was dependent on you for his needs. Nobody was keeping an eye on his well-being. Your professional qualifications make it even more severe, in my opinion. You attempted to hide what you had done, so you lied to the hospital, the recruiting agency, and the police. Despite having no prior convictions, Auta admitted to maltreatment and received a three-year prison sentence.
