A 28-year-old nurse has been sentenced to prison after leaving her 10-week-old baby alone at home while she went to work.
Ruth Auta departed her residence at the Royal Bolton Hospital’s nurses’ accommodation shortly after 06:30 GMT on December 20, 2022, leaving her son, Joshua Akerele, behind. She returned more than eight hours later.
Auta called an ambulance at 15:24, reporting that her baby was not breathing. Despite efforts to save him, Joshua was declared dead at 16:40. After pleading guilty to child cruelty and attempting to flee the country, Auta was sentenced to three years in prison at Bolton Crown Court on Tuesday.
The court could not determine a conclusive cause of Joshua’s death, although he had been healthy. It was speculated that he might have overheated from excessive clothing and bedding, but other possible causes were not ruled out.
Initially, Auta told Greater Manchester Police that she had picked Joshua up from a childminder and found him unresponsive after falling asleep beside him. However, CCTV footage revealed she had left her flat without Joshua at 06:47 and returned alone at 15:13.
Text messages on her phone showed she had asked the childminder to falsely claim that she had cared for Joshua that day, but the childminder stated she had not seen the baby for several days.
Charged with child cruelty, Auta pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on May 24. Her sentencing was set for June 21, but she was arrested at Gatwick Airport on June 6 while trying to fly to Nigeria.
Sara Davie from the Crown Prosecution Service said, “While Ruth Auta was employed to care for others, she left the one person who needed her care the most alone. As a nurse, she should have understood the risks of leaving her baby unattended and now faces the consequences of her grave error.”
Davie added that Auta demonstrated no remorse, misled the police, and attempted to avoid justice by fleeing the country. “Our thoughts are with those affected by Joshua’s tragic death,” she concluded.
