Courtney Gartshore sobbed as she was led from the dock at the High Court in Aberdeen after a jury took just over an hour to find her guilty of killing her three-month-old daughter Dahlia-Rose. The 28-year-old mother had denied culpable homicide, but was unanimously convicted of culpably and recklessly causing the baby to be subjected to heat from a hairdryer while in her sole care in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in September 2023.
Dahlia-Rose suffered burns to 18% of the surface area of her body, and the baby’s DNA was found on the hairdryer. The jury heard a recording of a 999 call made by Gartshore in which she said her child had gone “purple” while she was asleep. However, expert witness Dr Timothy Burge, a burns specialist, told the court it was his view that “the heat injuries did not cause the baby’s death” and that “it could have been that she was already dead.”
“Mother guilty of killing baby daughter with heat from hairdryer.”
Advocate depute Alan Cameron, prosecuting, described the case as an “awful, heartbreaking event” and argued that with only Gartshore and the baby in the property, “only the accused could have turned it on.” Witnesses had seen no injuries on Dahlia-Rose in the hours before her death, and the trial heard that Gartshore had consumed alcohol before the incident. Cameron said the jury did not need to answer why the hairdryer was turned on, but pointed to alcohol consumption and intoxication as “a possible explanation.” He told them they could not be moved by “sympathy or prejudice.”
Defence counsel Murray Macara KC said in his closing speech that the charge stated the injuries caused the death, and argued the “necessary causal connection” between the hairdryer and the death had not been proven. Judge Simon Collins called the case “disturbing.” He deferred sentencing to the High Court in Edinburgh on 14 August and remanded Gartshore in custody, thanking the jury and noting that counselling services were available. After the conviction, Detective Inspector James Callander said: “Children are defenceless and should be protected.”
