Baby left to suffer with broken bones

Sep 18 2009

A TINY baby with 14 broken bones was left to suffer excruciating pain by the evil woman who was supposed to care for her.

The first three months of the little girl’s life were blighted by cruelty and neglect as vicious Caroline Welden ignored her horrendous injuries.

And this week the heartless 28-year-old was jailed for four years for a catalogue of abuse inflicted upon the tiny infant.

The heartbreaking circumstances surrounding the first three months of the child’s life were revealed at Ayr Sheriff Court.

The tot was in the care of Welden at an address in Auchinleck.

She admitted wilfully neglecting the baby and failing to seek medical attention for the extensive injuries she suffered.

And Sheriff Jack McGowan expressed his disgust at the horrific treatment of the innocent newborn as he sent her to Cornton Vale prison for the “particularly nasty” offence.

Welden, who was living in St Andrew’s Hostel in Kilmarnock in the run up to the court case, was charged under the Child and Young Persons Act 1937.

She pleaded guilty to willfully ill treating, neglecting and abandoning the child in a manner likely to cause her suffering and injury to her health between May 8 and August 18, 2006 at a house in Auchinleck’s Cameron Drive, and elsewhere.

Welden admitted that she failed to provide adequate medical aid for the baby as a result of which she was caused unnecessary suffering and injury to her health.

The baby has since made a full recovery.

Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley MSP and former Scottish justice minister Cathy Jamieson believes that justice has been done.

She said: “It looks as if people have acted quickly in this case and appropriate action has been taken.

“Any time a custodial sentence is imposed shows how serious the court regards it.

“And for this length of sentence to be given it must have been pretty serious.”