Childminder, 62, admits killing nine-month-old baby by ‘forcefully’ shaking him out of ‘frustration’ when he cried after falling out of his high chair
A childminder today admitted the manslaughter of a nine-month-old boy by ‘violently’ shaking him in ‘frustration’ when he started crying after falling out of his highchair.
Karen Foster, 62, was due to stand trial for the murder of Harlow Collinge, who died in hospital in March 2022 after suffering head injuries at her bungalow in Hapton, Lancashire.
Harlow’s mother Gemma wept in the public gallery at Preston Crown Court as prosecutors today instead accepted Foster’s guilty plea to manslaughter.
She claims Harlow ‘fell off his chair’ and ‘hit his head’, the judge, Mr Justice Cotter, told the short hearing.
Foster claims she then “shook him in frustration” because he was crying, he said.
A childminder today admitted the manslaughter of nine-month-old boy Harlow Collinge by ‘forcefully’ shaking him ‘out of frustration’ when he started crying after falling from his highchair.
When asked by the judge whether the defense accepted that it was “the forceful shaking of Harlow that caused his death”, her barrister, Michelle Colborne KC, said: “Your Honor, yes.”
She confirmed that the blow to his head from falling out of the high chair did not cause his death.
No further details about the circumstances were disclosed in court.
Prosecutor Anne Whyte QC said the decision to accept the manslaughter plea came after discussions, including with Harlow’s family, who were in court.
In taking Foster back into custody, the judge warned her that she would face a “significant period of detention” when she returned to court next week.
A second charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against a second child she cared for as a childminder in 2019 will have to be thrown out of the file.
The alleged previous victim cannot be named for legal reasons.
Police were called to Foster’s white-painted bungalow in Hapton at around 1.20pm on March 1, 2022, following reports that a little boy had suffered a medical episode.
Harlow, aged nine and a half months, was taken to hospital for treatment but died on March 5.
Foster, a registered childminder with nine years’ experience, was arrested and questioned before being released on bail.
She was charged with murder in July last year and has been in custody ever since.
Dressed in a black vest over a white blouse, the grey-haired Foster – who wears glasses and uses a walking stick – sat slumped and grim-faced in the dock today as she was told a long prison sentence was inevitable.
After being asked to enter her plea to the murder charge today, Foster replied, “Not guilty.”
But after insistence from her legal team, she added: ‘Guilty of manslaughter.’
Foster, formerly of Burnley, Lancashire, will be sentenced next week.
