Nursery worker would not have been convicted of Genevieve Meehan’s manslaughter without footage, parents say
The weekend before Genevieve Meehan died was one of the best of her short life.
The nine-month-old with the beaming smile and emerald eyes was leaping through her milestones: she had taken her first tentative steps, hands clasped to her mother’s, and said her first word: “Dadda”. She tried on sunglasses and a swimsuit for their first family holiday two months later.
The following morning, Genevieve’s mother, Katie Wheeler, took her to Tiny Toes nursery for only her second full day. Wheeler told staff that Gigi, as she was known, had been a bit “snotty” but was otherwise fine. And with a goodbye, she said: “I love you, sweetie.”
Just over seven hours later, Genevieve was pronounced dead. In what was supposed to be the safest place in the world, she had been strapped face down to a beanbag for an hour and 37 minutes and her cries of distress ignored. She was eventually found lifeless and blue, having died of suffocation.
