News

Bolton nurse whose 10-week-old baby died after being left home alone jailed

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 16th September 2024

A nurse whose 10-week-old baby died after being left home alone for more than eight hours has been jailed.

Ruth Auta appeared at Bolton Crown Court last week (Tuesday 10 September), where the court heard that she left her nurses’ accommodation shortly after 6:30am on 20 December 2022 to carry out her shift at Royal Bolton Hospital – leaving behind her son, Joshua Akerele, in the process.

The 28-year-old returned more than eight hours later, and then, at 3:24pm, called for an ambulance reporting that her son “was not breathing”.

Despite attempts by paramedics to resuscitate him, Joshua sadly could not be saved and was pronounced dead at 4:40pm, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed.

Experts could not confirm the cause of Joshua’s death, and say he was “a healthy baby in all respects”.

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s thought that he may have overheated due to the layers of clothing and bedding he was wrapped in, but other potential causes of death “could not be ruled out”.

Auta initially told the police that she had collected Joshua from a childminder after she had finished work, and then took him back home, fed him, placed him on her bed and fell asleep next to him, before claiming that it was when she woke up she found him unresponsive, however, police seized CCTV footage showing Auta leaving her flat at 6:47am without her baby and returning home alone at 3:13pm.

ADVERTISEMENT

Messages to the childminder asking her to tell the police she had looked after Joshua that day were also found on on Auta’s phone, but the childminder told officers she had not seen Joshua for a few days.

In her police interview, Auta gave no comment to the questions asked. She was released on bail whilst a full police investigation was carried out.

Despite the fact Auta gave no comment to the questions asked in her police interview, she was charged with cruelty to a child and pleaded guilty at Manchester Magistrates Court on 24 May 2024, with case adjourned to 21 June 2024 for sentence, and finally sentenced to three years in prison at Bolton Crown Court last week.

ADVERTISEMENT

Speaking following the sentencing last week, Sara Davie, who is the District Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Whilst she went to work to provide care for other people, Ruth Auta left the very person who needed her care the most home alone.  

“As a nurse she should have known the dangers of leaving her baby unattended. As she begins her sentence, she must now live with the consequences of the terrible decision she made that day.

“Auta has failed to show remorse throughout the case, she misled police about her childcare arrangements, and then tried to evade justice by attempting to flee the country.

Read more:

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with all those who been affected by Joshua’s death.”

Featured Image – GMP

News

NHS rolls out new ‘life-extending’ ovarian cancer drug for first time in 20 years

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Patient in a hospital bed

The NHS has approved a new ovarian cancer treatment for the first time in two decades.

From today, hundreds of women with ‘hard-to-treat’ ovarian cancer could benefit from a new life-extending drug on the NHS called mirvetuximab soravtansine, and it will be offered to patients living with whose disease has unfortunately stopped responding to standard chemotherapy treatments, providing them with new hope of extra time to live.

The rollout of the drug on the NHS follows a major global clinical trial involving eight NHS hospitals, which showed that the treatment delayed cancer progression and prolonged survival – with patients living 16.5 months on average compared to 12.8 months with chemotherapy.

One patient said the treatment enabled her to get on with life ‘rather than spending it in bed recovering from the side effects of chemotherapy’.

So, how does it work then?

The NHS has rolled out a new ‘life-extending’ ovarian cancer drug for the first time in 20 years / Credit: rawpixel

Well, the drug combines a ‘homing’ antibody with a cancer-killing medicine – often described by scientists as a ‘biological missile’ or ‘trojan horse’ therapy – and it works by attaching to ovarian cancer cells that have a protein called folate receptor alpha (FRα) on their surface, before releasing a cancer-killing molecule which destroys the cell from within.

The treatment is given intravenously, via a drip, over two to four hours, once every three weeks.

The drug may also have ‘more tolerable’ side effects than traditional chemotherapy, with the treatment aimed more precisely at cancer cells than chemotherapy.

The NHS estimates up to 400 patients in England each year could benefit.

“This represents the most significant breakthrough in NHS treatment for these hard-to-treat ovarian cancers in over two decades, commented Professor Ruth Plummer, who is the NHS’s national clinical lead for cancer drugs.

Read more:

“We’re delighted it will now offer hundreds of women much-needed hope of precious extra time with their loved ones.

“It is part of a growing wave of more targeted cancer therapies which, by homing in on specific features of cancer cells, are helping us improve patients’ lives.”

Featured Image – Stephen Andrews (via Unsplash)

News

Count Binface says he’ll put a £2 price cap on Wigan kebabs if he wins the Makerfield by-election

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Count Binface

Count Binface is officially running in the Makerfield by-election and has now shared his hilarious manifesto with the public.

Price-capped Wigan kebabs and 99p ice creams, cyclists being forced to ride unicycles if they break the Highway Code, and the renaming of HS2 to ‘FFS1’ are just some of the declarations being made by Makerfield by-election candidate, Count Binface.

In case you’re not up-to-speed on the Makerfield by-election coming up on 18 June – which was called after Labour’s Josh Simons announced he was standing down – there are now a total of 14 hopefuls set to contest the parliamentary seat.

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, is by far the most well-known candidate in the running, alongside other names like Conservative’s Michael Winstanley, Liberal Democrats’ Jake Austin, the Green Party’s Sarah Wakefield, and Reform UK’s Michael Kenyon.

But Burnham is not the only big name… there’s also Count Binface too, of course.

Count Binface – previously known as Lord Buckethead – is the alias of comedian and perennial candidate, Jonathan David Harvey.

He announced his intentions to run for the Makerfield seat last month, before officially publishing his manifesto today (3 June), which includes 20 pledges – some serious, others less so… we presume.

On a more local level to the Makerfield area, if Count Binface wins the by-election, he has pledged to re-phase the traffic lights on Liverpool Road to ease congestion, increase the free parking limit at the Gerard Centre to three hours, and to make Galloways’ Full Monty Bin Lid breakfast the country’s new national dish.

And then on a more comical level – yes, even more comical than a new national dish – this is where you’ll find pledges like making sure there’s WiFi on trains that works and also ‘trains that work’ too, as well as the bringing back of Ceefax teletext for all Greater Manchester residents, and the increasing of points for tries in Rugby League from four to five ‘in line with inflation’.

Read more:

Oh yeah, and there’s the promise that Count Binface will be the UK’s entrant to Eurovision in 2027, let’s not forget that.

Anyway, like we said, the Makerfield by-election is coming up on 18 June, and you can find out more information about all the candidates on the Wigan Council website here.

Featured Image – Count Binface

More News

Stockport man who squirted semen on women in supermarkets jailed

Cheshire

Stockport man who squirted semen on women in supermarkets jailed

Crime

Oldham man jailed for life after strangling another man he had a ‘complex’ relationship with

City Centre

Tram diversions and disruption on Market Street as improvement works are carried out

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches