Parents found guilty of manslaughter over baby who drowned in bath

A jury delivered the verdict over the death of 13-month-old Kian Dale, who was found unconscious in the bath at his home at Kyreside Tenbury Wells, on September 26, 2015, and later pronounced dead at Birmingham Children's Hospital after attempts to revive him failed.

He had been left alone in a bath seat which he was not strapped into for at least 13 minutes, Worcester Crown Court heard during a two-week trial.

Parents Wayne Dale, 44, and Lisa Passey, 28, now no longer a couple, both denied manslaughter by gross negligence.

But yesterday the jury of seven men and five women delivered a guilty verdict for both on that count, as well as a charge of neglecting or abandoning a child, having deliberated through Friday afternoon and Monday morning.

Mother-of-three Passey had run a bath for Kian, and Dale, who now lives at an address in Malvern, had started bathing him before he went downstairs, leaving his son in a bath seat, when a friend, Jeanette Morgan, visited the house.

Both parents, who were represented by separate lawyers, claimed they thought the other was with him while he was left for a prolonged period.

In his evidence Dale, a father of seven, said he had left him for moment but thought he heard Passey come upstairs to take over, so went downstairs.

It was only when she appeared behind him he realised she wasn't with Kian, and he broke down in tears as he described returning to the bathroom to find his son submerged in the bath with the taps running and the water very high.

As he tried to revive Kian, Passey called 999. She acknowledged she ran the bath but denied at any stage taking over the bathing of their son from Dale. She said Kian himself may have turned the taps on again while he was left.

Judge Robert Juckes QC, summing up the case, told the jury that the facts were, to a considerable extent, agreed between prosecution and defence.

He suggested the central issue was to what extent the negligence displayed could be considered 'gross'.

The case has been adjourned for sentencing on April 25.