Toddler death inquiry announced

Jan 26 2012

A fatal accident inquiry is to be held into the death of a toddler murdered by his mother, the Crown Office has said.

Kimberley Hainey, 37, was found guilty by a majority verdict last month of murdering her son Declan at a flat in Bruce Road, Paisley, Renfrewshire.

She was jailed for life by the High Court in Glasgow on January 12 and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years.

The Crown Office said the decision to hold a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into her son's death was made by Crown counsel.

Hainey was also convicted of failing to report Declan's death to police or other authorities and of concealing his body at the flat.

The court heard that Declan's body was "mummified" when it was found in March 2010 when he would have been 23 months old. Experts said he had been dead for several months. The cause of death is not known but he is said to have last been seen alive when he was 15 months old.

Hainey was also sentenced to seven years for attempting to defeat the ends of justice, which will run concurrently with the 15 years.

She pretended the child was being cared for by family members or that he was at nursery, leading people to believe he was still alive.

Following the trial at the High Court in Glasgow she was found guilty of wilfully ill-treating, neglecting and abandoning the toddler, and exposing him in a manner that was likely to cause him suffering or injury to his health.

Sentencing her, Lord Woolman said: "You embarked on a systematic and elaborate course of conduct to prevent people knowing, or suspecting, that Declan was dead. It was a lengthy course of deceit that prevented proper inquiries being made."