'I didn’t think she had passed away, I just thought she was unconscious' - Mansfield mum accused of scalding 19-month-old daughter to death tells murder trial

In the first day of defence evidence at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, December 1, Katie Crowder said she could not explain the amount of the drug found in her blood in the time prior to the death of daughter Gracie.

Crowder, 26, of Wharmby Avenue, Mansfield, told the court that she had not taken cocaine since Tuesday, March 3 - three days before Gracie’s death on March 6 this year.

This is despite a toxicologist stating earlier in the trial that she had the equivalent of “three large lines” of the drug in her system in the hour leading up to her raising the alarm - based on a blood test taken following her a rest and backwards calculations from scientists.

Describing the moment she found her daughter, Crowder told the jury: “It was just a normal morning. Gracie was sat on the sofa and she was shoving a banana in the puppy's face. I filled up the mop bucket as soon as I saw the dog wee. Wallace and Gromit was on the television.

"I went into the bathroom and I saw Gracie. She just looked like Gracie with her eyes closed until I saw her face.There was a red mark on her face and there was white between her teeth.I shouted Gracie, Gracie. I had her in my arms and I tried to blow into her mouth. I grabbed my coat from the back of the door and I ran to my mum's. She was very hot.”

She claimed it was not possible to get in the ambulance and added: “The last time I saw Gracie, she was lying on my mum’s living room floor.”

And when asked why she had returned to her own house after paramedics rushed Gracie to King’s Mill Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, Crowder replied: “I went back to get Gracie some stuff, like nappies. I didn’t think she had passed away, I just thought she was unconscious.”

In the hearing, the court heard that Crowder was being supported by Children Centre - formerly Sure Start - and Mansfield-based drugs charity Change Grow Live, and repeatedly told support workers that she wasn’t using cocaine.

Responding to questioning about why she had lied, she said: “I was worried what would come of it. They thought I didn’t take it at all and sometimes I did take it. I would take it about once a month. I’d take three lines one evening and three lines another evening.”

She added that she never took either cocaine or cannabis in Gracie’s presence, and would only take drugs when the child was being cared for by a relative.

Crowder says that she had found Gracie unconscious on the floor with an upturned mop bucket lying next to her, claiming that she inflicted the injuries on herself. But prosecutors argue that Crowder deliberately poured the hot water over her and then delayed raising the alarm to “cover her tracks”.

Crowder denies murder.

The case continues.

Editor’s message: In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.