Parademic Sarah Higgins wept in court after being cleared of manslaughter charges for the death of baby Skyla Giller, whom herself and partner Martin were fostering
A paramedic cleared of killing a baby girl she desperately wanted to adopt says she is finally able to grieve for the daughter she lost.
Sarah Higgins, 42, denied the manslaughter of baby Skyla Giller, who she and her partner Martin Dobson were fostering whilst in the adoption process.
Higgins said she and Mr Dobson were happy at finally having a baby after eight unsuccessful rounds of IVF and always claimed Skyla wriggled from her arms. She sobbed with relief in the dock as the jury foreman announced the verdict halfway through the second day of deliberations.
As she left the court she fell into the arms of her partner Martin Dobson, both of them in tears and she wept: ‘It’s over.’ In a statement she said she had escaped a ‘terrible miscarriage of justice’ and wanted time to recover from the death of the little girl, whom she had re-named Hannah.
‘On the 26th August 2017 I lost my beautiful little girl in what has now been recognised to have been a truly tragic accident.
The court heard Higgins had become frustrated whilst trying to feed baby Skyla at home, and accidentally dropped the child onto a carpeted floor
‘I am grateful to my friends and family who have believed in me and have supported me throughout this awful time. The people who know me, knew all along that I was never capable of that which was being alleged.
‘I would like to thank my legal team, Jamie Hill, QC, Rebecca Young and Angela Ambler and the independent medical experts who supported my case.
‘These were world renowned experts and without their expertise I could have been the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice.
Ms Higgins wept in court with her partner Martin as she was cleared of all charges
‘I would also like to thank the jury who in these uncertain times have continued to attend the court and have delivered justice for myself and for Hannah.
‘I know that some people will reject the verdict of the jury based on that reported in social media but hopefully the verdict will serve to give people cause to think on their actions and their words before assuming the worst of others and giving vice to their hatred.
‘I have nothing further to add, save I should be grateful for the respect of my privacy, as I start the grieving process which has been denied to me.’
Leeds Crown Court had heard she became momentarily frustrated whilst attempting to feed the ‘grizzly’ tot and did something to her that caused her death in a flash of temper. A doctor told the court that colleagues who assessed ten-month-old Skyla considered it likely her injuries were ‘catastrophic or repetitive’.
The infant died at Leeds General Infirmary two days after Higgins dialled 999 and told the operator the baby slipped and fell to the carpeted floor while feeding her, landing on her bottom.
Higgins and Mr Dobson, both Yorkshire Ambulance Service paramedics, were in the process of adopting Skyla at the time of her death on August 26, 2017, at their then home in Skelmanthorpe, near Huddersfield, West Yorks.
During an interview with police on April 6, 2018, Higgins denied intentionally hurting Skyla and said the baby had not suffered any head injuries the evening of the fall. She told police: ‘I have never, ever hurt her. It never made any sense to me how and what happened.
‘We have been waiting for an answer wondering how this could happen. I can’t explain it. It’s not like we were thinking of an explanation for all of this. I’ve been open from the start.’
She added: ‘When we got her it was the happiest we’ve ever been.’ The court heard how Higgins was ‘completely committed’ to adoption after going through eight rounds of IVF treatments but after they were unsuccessful, they decided to look into adoption.
Ms Higgins had earlier arrived at court in a hat, scarf and wearing sunglasses
Prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, told jurors that Higgins’ version of how Skyla suffered her fatal brain injury after wriggling from her arms was not credible. The experts who had given evidence had never seen a child who had fallen that way suffer a brain injury of the type that killed the baby girl, he said.
Mr Wright continued: ‘There is not one expert of vast clinical experience who has ever seen anything of the sort before, it would be a wholly unique explanation for those injuries. ‘It has never been reported before in any medical literature, it is not known to experts around the world.It would be a world first.’
He told jurors that Higgins, now of Castleford, West Yorks, had injured Skyla during a momentary loss of temper, telling an operator during her 999 call: ‘I must have done something to her.’
He said: ‘Sarah Higgins and Martin Dobson do not want to face the reality that this otherwise good and decent person who had led a valuable life lost her temper and did something to that baby.
‘No one wants to acknowledge that reality but it is a reality towards which, we suggest on the evidence, you are driven and that is why we invite you to return a guilty verdict in this case.’
Jamie Hill, QC, for Higgins, said: ‘Medical evidence raises great suspicion about abusive trauma but none of it is ruling out Sarah Higgins’ account, none of it is saying it cannot be true.
‘None of it goes anywhere near making you sure that this perfectly decent woman is guilty of manslaughter.’
Consultant paediatrician Elizabeth Day had earlier told the jury how she examined Skyla after she was admitted to hospital and found five bruises on the baby’s right arm.
Leeds Crown Court heard ‘the baby had been “grizzly” and was not taking her milk’
She told the court: ‘No explanation has been provided for this.’ The trial has heard Skyla also suffered bleeding to eye tissue and optic nerves. Dr Day said an ophthalmology report suggested a ‘traumatic cause’ should be considered as there was no obvious medical cause for the injuries.
She told the court she interviewed Higgins about the incident and said Higgins described how she had been sitting on a wooden rocking chair feeding Skyla.
The defendant said the baby had been ‘grizzly’ and was not taking her milk. Dr Day said: ‘Sarah stood up to turn Skyla around to face her and, in her words, ‘I lost grip of her’.’
Higgins said the baby fell to the floor from around chest height and fell on her bottom in what she described as not being a ‘significant fall’.
Higgins told the doctor Skyla did not initially appear to be injured and she put the baby back in her cot. She described how she became concerned when Skyla’s face ‘went blank’ and she noticed blood in her mouth.
Higgins went on to describe how Skyla’s body went ‘floppy and the colour drained from her body.’