Four-week-old baby dies after mother drunkenly falls asleep on him during night out

Infant’s death a ‘dreadful case of maternal selfishness’, judge says

Marina Tilby, 26, killed her four-week-old son after taking him on a night in New Quay, Wales, and drunkenly falling asleep on top of him (Getty)

The mother of a four-week old baby, who was so drunk she did not realise her child had been rushed to hospital after she fell asleep on top of him, has been jailed for neglect.

Marina Tilby, 26, had taken her son Darian with her when she went out drinking with her sister in New Quay, West Wales, before bringing him back to a stranger’s caravan.

Darian was found unresponsive with his mother laying on top of him in the early hours of 31 March.

Swansea Crown Court heard Tilby was so drunk that it was an hour and a quarter before her sister could wake her.

Meanwhile her baby had been rushed to Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth with blood in his mouth.

Despite the efforts of a team of paediatric specialists from Bristol, Darian died later that day.

Tilby was jailed for two years and four months after admitting wilful neglect and Judge Paul Thomas said she had “ignored her duty” to her son so she could get extremely drunk.

Prosecutors said Darian had suffered a heart attack after Tilby, of Llwyncelyn, Ceredigion, fell asleep on him, however a post-mortem was unable to give a definitive cause of death.

Dyfed Thomas, defending Tilby, said she had “clearly suffered” and has been diagnosed with depression since the incident.

“Her grief will fill her for the absence of her child for the rest of her days,” he said.

Judge Thomas said he was “uneasy” at the charge of neglect being brought in the absence of a definitive cause of death.

He labelled the incident a “dreadful case of maternal selfishness”, adding: “It is a mother’s responsibility, a mother’s duty and her natural instinct to put the care and safety of her four-week-old child above all else.

“You completely ignored that duty so you could get extremely drunk on a night-out.”

“So drunk were you that you fell into a deep sleep and slept on top of your baby. There came a time when he was not moving. He had blood in his mouth, but you didn’t realise because you were so drunk.”