Outbursts as handcuffed mum hears how girl died

[Alison J Stevens]

Outbursts as handcuffed mum hears how girl died

Lisa Riozzi pictured outside court at an earlier hearing

By adrian troughton

A handcuffed mother looked on in court yesterday as an inquest heard how she accidentally smothered her 17-day-old daughter to death.

Heroin addict Lisa Riozzi (45) shouted out several times to dispute the evidence given during the opening of the hearing at Leicester Town Hall yesterday.

Riozzi was sentenced to three years in jail in October last year after pleading guilty to two charges of cruelty to her daughter.

She was brought from prison to attend the inquest.

The inquest heard that she suffocated her baby daughter Chloe after falling asleep while trying to breast-feed on October 17, 2007.

Pathologist Denis Bouch said the baby was smothered to death, and also suffered a fractured skull.

Riozzi said Chloe suffered the injury after falling from a bed, but Dr Bouch said this could not have been the cause.

Riozzi, who was handcuffed to a female prison officer throughout the hearing, then shouted: “He’s wrong, he’s wrong. I know what happened. I’m not a medic but I know what happened.”

Coroner Donald Coutts-Wood warned that she was allowed to ask questions, but not to act in such a manner.

Riozzi, of Sharmon Crescent, Braunstone Frith, Leicester, had been allowed to leave the Leicester Royal Infirmary three days after giving birth, despite the concerns of nursing staff, the inquest heard.

Midwife Amanda Bedford said she was surprised to hear the mother of five, who had told nurses she had a £30-a-day drug habit, had been discharged on October 4, 2007.

Ms Bedford said: “I was concerned about the number of entries relating to the baby being left unattended with dirty nappies, and Lisa nowhere to be seen.”

She said nurses had started a parenting log and noted that Chloe had been left naked and unclean and uncared for, while staff had been unable to rouse Lisa at times.

Elaine Murphy, then a specialist midwife for substance misuse at the hospital, said the ward manager suspected Riozzi had been leaving the infirmary to buy heroin.

Caroline Tote, head of children’s safeguarding at Leicester City Council, said the only way they could stop a person leaving hospital in such circumstances would be to get a police protection order or an emergency protection order.

She said the circumstances surrounding Riozzi did not cross the threshold for such orders.

Mrs Tote said: “Some people think the medical profession can stop people taking children home just like that, but they can’t.”

Dr Bouch said the cause of death was overlay – where someone lies on a child, and the child dies.

“It is almost like a squashing effect,” he said.

But he said he could not rule out that suffocation had been caused by a hand or a pillow.

The hearing was told that the circumstances of Chloe’s death had triggered a serious case review into the actions of the seven health teams who had contact with Riozzi before her daughter’s death.

The findings of the report will be revealed after the inquest.

The inquest continues.

 

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Outbursts-handcuffed-mum...

 

 

 

 

MY THOUGHTS

Once again a child a 17 day old baby, has been failed by Nursing and medical staff.
The Mother has a history of drug abuse, and there was serious concerns about her parenting skills, leaving the baby unattended,left naked, and uncared for, the mother was also found doped up at times.
Classic signs that the Mother was not coping.
On this occasion, i feel that if kincare could not be an option, the LA should of been informed directly,and instigated an emergency protection order, to immediately safeguard the baby, while giving the Mother the help that she needed, regarding her drug abuse,and possibly reuniting them at a future time, if deemed appropriate.
Another serious case review at the taxpayers expense, for a child that died needlessly