Couple jailed for forcing 5-year-old to lie in ice-cold bath for hours

‘The delay in calling the ambulance, I have little doubt, was concern for yourself and not the child,’ judge tells pair

Girl was “minutes away” from death, court hears (West Yorks Police / SWNS)

A couple have been jailed after torturing their five-year-old girl “almost to death” by forcing her to lay down in an ice-cold bath for hours.

The girl’s mother Georgia Newman, 29, and step-father Jordan Michael Kilkenny, 29, made the child lie in the bath for up to three hours for misbehaving, a court heard.

Leeds Crown Court was told that when she became unresponsive, they tried to warm her up before eventually calling 999.

When the paramedics got to the property in Leeds, West Yorkshire. the young girl was unconscious, blue in appearance and frothing at the mouth.

She later suffered a seizure and was put on a ventilator with doctors fully expecting her not to survive.

They used a “Bair Hugger” heated blanket to raise her temperature, and even a bladder wash to push warm fluid through her body, prosecutors said.

The paramedic could also not straighten out her body because she was so stiff from the cold, prosecutor Richard Woolfall told the court.

Doctors did not expect the girl to survive after her core body temperature plummeted to 25C – about12C less than normal.

One medical expert even said it was similar to someone who had been “floating in the North Sea” and had never known anyone survive from such extreme hypothermia.

But against the odds, she made a full recovery and now lives with her biological father.

After their arrest, Newman claimed the child had slipped and hit her head, and Kilkenny said he had no idea why she was cold.

He had previously Googled what would happen if a child was placed in a cold bath for 45 minutes, the court heard.

A statement later given by the child to the police said that it had been the step-father who had put her in the bath, at the direction of her mother, for her misbehaving.

Mitigating for Newman, Alex Menary said the mother was heavily pregnant at the time and had anxiety and depression.

He said: “She has had three years to reflect on her behaviour, she bitterly regrets what happened.

“There is clear and genuine remorse.”

Mark Foley, representing Kilkenny, said: “At no point did he intend to cause serious harm. He is disgusted by his actions.”

They both admitted cruelty on a basis that they had tried to get her out of the bath, but said the girl had refused.

Newman was jailed for three years and six months while Kilkenny received a sentence of three years and four months in prison.

Judge Robin Mairs said: “It was a cruel and unusual punishment and you must have known it would have caused considerable discomfort.

“She was subjected to an extreme, calculated and torturous punishment.

“Medical staff recognised that death was just minutes away.

“That was the punishment you inflicted on your daughter.

“The delay in calling the ambulance, I have little doubt, was concern for yourself and not the child. Your parental culpability is equal.”

SWNS