Mother jailed for baby daughter’s hairdryer burns death
A mother who killed her baby daughter by burning her with a hairdryer has been jailed for six years.
Courtney Gartshore, 28, used the appliance to subject three-month-old Dahlia-Rose to “significant and sustained heat” on her head and body.
Emergency services were called to the scene at a property in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in September 2023, but the child had died.
Gartshore was convicted of culpable homicide – the closest equivalent to manslaughter in Scots Law – following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in July.
Sentencing Gartshore at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Simon Collins KC described the case as “uniquely disturbing and distressing”.
He said it was “tragic as well as terrible”.
Gartshore appeared via videolink at the 25-minute hearing, during which she sobbed and wiped away tears.
The judge said Gartshore would have to live for the rest of her life knowing she was responsible for her daughter’s death.
“This was a gross breach of the most basic duty as a parent,” he added.
Judge Collins said her likely cause of death was hyperthermia and heat stroke.