Police thought Mansfield woman accused of murdering 19-month-old daughter was high on drugs when they arrived at her home

Nottingham Crown Court was shown bodycam’ video footage of the two officers attending two addresses on Wharmby Avenue, Mansfield, shortly after paramedics had left the scene to rush 19-month old Gracie Crowder to hospital on March 6 this year.

Her mother, Katie Crowder, is accused of deliberately scalding her daughter, Gracie, and then delaying getting help as she died to ‘cover her tracks.

Prosecutors have alleged that the child could not have sustained such severe burns through an accidental spill, as the 26-year-old claims.

The officers first attended the home of Crowder’s parents but were directed to the defendant’s home four doors down, where footage showed her in a dazed and incoherent state.

PC Jack Munn, based at Mansfield Police Station, told the court: “I thought that she may be under the influence of something, either drink or drugs, due to her demeanour, but I’d never met her before so it’s difficult to be 100 per cent. She seemed quite drowsy, and I thought she was under the influence.”

Footage then shows the two officers driving the 26-year-old to King’s Mill Hospital, in Sutton, where, on arrival, she appeared unsteady on her feet and said she wanted a cigarette before going inside.

Earlier in proceedings, prosecutor Sally Howes QC told the jury that the amount of cocaine found in the defendant's blood four hours after the incident indicated she had taken it an hour before Gracie's death.

Giving evidence today (Friday, November 20), Crowder’s older sister, Ellen Smedley, said she was aware of the defendant’s drug use and she believed she had started to regularly take cocaine when she was aged 23 or 24.

She said that she had only ever been told the first name of Gracie’s father and that Crowther had ended up living back at her parents following an overdose, when her female partner kicked her out in 2019.

She had later secured her own home a few doors down the road around five months later.

Crowder denies murder.

The case continues.

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