My ‘little treasure’ was shaken to death by Ofsted-registered childminder
AS I rang the doorbell, I heard the familiar sound of my baby son crying inside, and my heart lurched.
“Is Harlow OK?” I asked anxiously, as his childminder, Karen Foster, answered the door. “I heard him crying.”
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“Oh, he’s fine,” she replied breezily. “Stop worrying. It will take him three months to settle in here.”
But scooping Harlow into my arms, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy. I couldn’t work out whether I was over-protective, or I was right to be concerned. But I really didn’t like leaving him with the childminder.
Harlow was my third child, but my first with my partner, Allen Frangleton, now 40. When we’d got together, in 2020, I had two teenage daughters and Allen had three sons and a daughter.
We weren’t planning a baby, so when I fell pregnant in the autumn of 2020, it was a surprise. But we soon got excited. I couldn’t wait to be a mum again.
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The pregnancy went well, and Harlow was born in May 2021, healthy. He was completely perfect. His big sisters and brothers all spoiled him. Everyone adored him.
He was such a good baby too; slotting straight into our family routine. He ate and slept well and was so smiley.
As he got bigger, he learned to clap with his feet, which always made us laugh. He loved Peter Rabbit and pink wafer biscuits.
I treasured every moment of being his mum, but, towards the end of 2021, my maternity leave was running out. Reluctantly, I had to start planning childcare.
My hours as a business coordinator were 11.30pm – 4.30am and so nursery wasn’t suitable. My colleague recommended Karen Foster, a local childminder in Burnley, Lancashire.
I made an appointment to see her, and she was very welcoming. She seemed experienced, she said she’d been a nurse and a foster carer. I was filled with reassurance.
And though, at 60, she was older, she was apparently an open-water swimmer, and was very fit and healthy.
We arranged a few settling-in sessions, for January 2022, and the first two visits went well. But at the end of the third session, I started to worry about the number of children Karen was looking after.
She did school wraparound care and sometimes she’d have eight or nine kids and a baby there, as well as Harlow. I decided to challenge her.
“Oh, it’s fine, my husband is a registered childminder and the rules are different for siblings. I’m well within the regulations, don’t worry.”
I checked online and she was registered with Ofsted. I couldn’t find anything negative about Karen at all.
“I just don’t feel happy leaving Harlow,” I told Allen.
Heartbreaking remarks of sentencing judge
Harlow Collinge was a healthy, happy and much loved 10-month-old when he was dropped off at your home by his mother on 1st March 2022.
She had been using your childminding services for some six weeks, but not without some concerns.
You had been a Ofsted registered childminder for approximately nine years… you should have been a very safe pair of hands into which Gemma Collinge could place her child.
You were not…. within two and a half hours of being dropped off by his mother, Harlow had sustained devastating injuries which caused him to go into cardiac arrest.
He was taken to hospital but never regained consciousness.
He had suffered precisely the type of injuries that the treating doctors would expect to see in cases of non-accidental shaking injury.
After consultation with his parents, whose agony can only be imagined, Harlow’s intensive care was withdrawn, and he was pronounced dead at 13.30pm on 5 March 2022.
As they have movingly described, for his parents, siblings, and grandparents, Harlow was a little treasure and his loss is a tragedy, the effects of which will never diminish.
Nothing can be said or done to ease what is a life sentence of grief for them.
The sentence I will impose on you will come to an end; theirs never will.
But I accepted maybe I was just over-anxious, returning to work. In February, Karen began caring for Harlow officially.
To my alarm, he cried every time I dropped him off, and he was usually crying when I collected him too.
“He’s fine,” Karen told me. “He’s just a tough nut to crack.”
But it was upsetting, thinking he was unhappy. One day, I collected Harlow and his bottle was still in his bag. She had forgotten to feed him. When I mentioned it, she said he was ‘lazy’ and ought to be giving himself his bottle.
I checked online and she was registered with Ofsted. I couldn’t find anything negative about Karen at all.
Gemma Collinge
Karen was regimented in the way she looked after the children. I got the sense they were wary of her, frightened even. If she shouted, they jumped to attention. But then, I conceded, she needed rules to keep them all safe. Especially with so many children to care for.
I asked my mum, Viv, and Allen to meet her.
“She seems OK,” they said.
I thought maybe it was just me. But one day, I arrived at Karen’s and it was chaos. There were lots of children, some crying. I found Harlow in his pram, covered in his own vomit and with a wet nappy. He was sobbing. I was so upset.
“Enough is enough,” I said firmly.
I found a new childminder, who could take Harlow after he turned one, in May, two months away. In the meantime, I swapped my shifts so I could take Harlow to work with me. Allen took time off work, and Mum looked after him one day a week too.
I got the sense [the children in her care] were wary of her, frightened even. If she shouted, they jumped to attention.
Gemma Collinge
He was now only with Karen on Monday and Tuesday, and they were her quieter days. I booked two weeks off in March as well, so I could look after him full-time.
It was a relief to know Karen wouldn’t be looking after him for much longer. I didn’t for a moment think she would harm him in any way; I was just worried she had too many children.
On March 1, I dropped Harlow off with Karen as usual.
He had a rash around his mouth but was absolutely full of beans. I took a photo of him and he was so smiley. I kissed him goodbye and went off to work.
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Two and a half hours later, I got a call from Karen.
“Harlow choked on pasta, he stopped breathing,” she told me.
I was in such a panic, I couldn’t take it in. My boss drove me to Royal Blackburn Hospital where Karen was already waiting.
She put her arms around me and told me she’d tried to save him.
“I did CPR,” she said. “I did my best.”
Shell-shocked, I was on my hands and knees praying, begging for my baby to be OK. Allen and Mum arrived.
“How has he choked on pasta?” Mum asked Karen. “Harlow doesn’t even like pasta.”
Then the police came and said there was no sign of Harlow choking.
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“He had a new cream for his rash,” I remembered. “Perhaps he’s had a bad reaction?”
Mum dashed to Karen’s to pick up the cream, so doctors could check. But then a scan showed Harlow had a brain injury.
“How?” I asked, bewildered.
Karen was taken to a different room and I was allowed to see my baby, just for a moment.
He was on a ventilator, surrounded by wires. It was like a nightmare. I couldn’t take it in. Harlow was transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Allen and I kept a vigil by his bedside. But four days on, his doctors said there was no hope.
She put her arms around me and told me she’d tried to save him.
Gemma Collinge
He was just ten months old. I felt as though my whole world was being smashed into little pieces. How could this happen?
Harlow’s life-support was withdrawn, and we were told he would slip away quite quickly. Instead, he continued to breathe, in my arms, for 12 hours. It was agony, knowing each breath might be his last.
Coming home from the hospital without our little boy was unbearably sad.
We still had no idea how he’d died. Karen was refusing to tell the truth. She tried saying he had a genetic fault, and so our family had to undergo genetic testing. She insisted on a second post-mortem. She even tried blaming me.
She told so many lies, just adding to our pain.
Karen Foster’s timeline of lies
- March 1, 2022 – in the morning: Harlow is dropped off at Karen Foster’s home, healthy and well by his mum.
- March 1, 2022, 1:14PM: Karen Foster calls 999 and says Harlow is not breathing and she thought he was choking, having suffered a seizure. When the paramedics arrive, she says he had not choked but had finished his dinner and the next minute collapsed and also that he had been eating and had become floppy, drowsy, and unwell.
- March 1, 2022: Harlow is taken to hospital. Karen Foster tells Harlow’s mum over the phone that he had choked on pasta, had stopped breathing, and she had been trying to resuscitate him.
- March 1, 2022: Karen Foster tells doctors he had not choked but had finished eating when she picked him up from his highchair, became stiff and stopped breathing. She said she slapped him on the back several times and started CPR.
- March 1, 2022: When police officers initially asked how many children Karen Foster was looking after she said it was three: Harlow and two children aged four.
- This was not accurate as she was also looking after another child. By having four children under five and also having two children under 12 months, she was in breach of Ofsted rules.
- March 2, 2022: During police interviews, she again lies about how many children she was caring for.
- March 5, 2022- 1:30PM: Harlow dies as a result of being shaken.
- July 15, 2022: Karen Foster again reiterates her lies during a police interview.
- June 2024: Karen Foster denies murder at Preston Crown Court and an alternative charge of manslaughter is accepted. She is sentenced to 12 years and seven months in jail
The police told us not to tell anyone that Karen had been arrested. On social media, people speculated that perhaps a family member was responsible for Harlow’s death. It was hard, not being able to share the facts.
One day, my phone rang, and a lady introduced herself from Ofsted.
“I’m letting you know Karen Foster has been suspended, so you would need to find alternative childcare,” she said.
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe they could be so insensitive.
“My son is the child who died,” I replied.
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But there was worse to come. Other parents contacted me, saying there had been previous complaints about Foster.
The police also confirmed she had been in breach of Ofsted rules regarding the number of children she was allowed to care for. Her husband wasn’t registered with Ofsted at all. It was all lies.
But our whole family was destroyed. My daughters had to come out of school, I couldn’t work. I couldn’t even leave the house. I left everything as it was; Harlow’s cot, his toys his clothes. I couldn’t bear to change a thing.
We held a Peter Rabbit funeral for him, a tiny little blue coffin with a fluffy rabbit on top.
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Alongside my grief I felt so guilty for trusting Foster. I wished, more than anything, I could have listened to my instincts. I tortured myself. Yet I knew she was the only one to blame. She was charged with murdering our son.
For two years, I put my faith in the justice system completely. I kept quiet, just as the police had said. I pinned all my hopes on the trial.
Foster appeared before Preston Crown Court in June 2024 and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
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The court heard she had violently shaken baby Harlow, causing catastrophic brain injuries. In court, she claimed Harlow had fallen out of his highchair. It was more lies.
She was jailed for 12 years and seven months.
Foster had also been charged with assaulting a two-year-old girl in her care in 2019, which she denied. That count was ordered to lie on the file.
Karen Foster is a monster and I hope she rots in jail. But there are many other failings and these need to be addressed so this does not happen to another family.
We miss Harlow every moment of every day. In his name, I want to campaign for Harlow’s Law, meaning stricter regulation of childminders and nurseries. Nothing will bring my boy back, but I hope another life can be saved in his memory.
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