Mum accused of killing baby told 999 operator 'her head is purple'

WARNING: This article contains details some readers may find distressing

A trial has heard the moment a woman accused of killing her daughter confirmed to an emergency call handler that her baby was beyond help.

Courtney Gartshore told the 999-call operator on September 30, 2023, that she had woken up that morning to find her daughter, Dahlia-Rose, dead in their home in Peterhead.

Gartshore told the operator: “I just woke up and her head is all purple.”

The operator asks if Dahila-Rose is “beyond help”, to which Gartshore replied “yeah”.

Gartshore goes on to tell the operator, “…her skin is peeling off and everything.”

Courtney Gartshore is accused of subjecting Dahlia-Rose to “significant and sustained” heat from a hairdryer.

It is alleged that her injuries were so severe that she died as a result.

Gartshore faces a separate accusation of wilfully neglecting Dahlia-Rose.

This includes claims that she drank alcohol to excess, did “co-sleep” with the baby while intoxicated, possessed controlled drugs and had the child live in “unsanitary conditions”.

She denies all the charges against her.

During the emergency call, an audibly distressed Gartshore can be heard saying: “I feel so bad because I’ve been sleeping. She’s obviously been like this for hours.”

The call operator asked: “What was she like the day before?”

Gartshore replied, “…she was perfectly fine.”

The trial at the High Court in Aberdeen also heard from Shona Helm, who was one of the first paramedics on the scene.

Ms Helm described finding the baby as “distressing”.

She told the court Dahlia-Rose’s hand was “dark grey or black” and “all the skin was peeling off”.

Earlier, the court had heard from a nearby neighbour of Courtney Gartshore.

Leanne Thomson had described hearing Gartshore, with Dahlia-Rose in a pram, shouting near her home in Peterhead hours before the emergency call was made.

Ms Thomson told the court she and another neighbour went out to see Gartshore.

She said when she touched Dahlia-Rose’s face and noticed she was “frozen, pure white” and said she had told Gartshore her daughter needed a blanket.

The trial at the High Court in Aberdeen continues.