PM invited to meet mother of nursery death baby

The prime minister has been invited to meet the mother of a 14-month-old boy who died after being subjected to "excessive" force and restraint as nursery staff tried to make him sleep.

Noah Sibanda died in December 2022 after being smothered and a member of staff at Fairytales Day Nursery in Dudley, West Midlands used her leg to pin him down.

Nursery worker Kimberley Cookson, 23, was jailed last week for three years and four months, the nursery owner was given a suspended sentence and the nursery itself fined £240,000.

During Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Dudley MP Sonia Kumar asked Sir Keir Starmer if he would meet Noah's mother to discuss how to prevent similar deaths in future.

Warning: This story contains distressing details

In response, the prime minister acknowledged "this awful and tragic case" and said he would make sure "all the necessary meetings are set up".

Labour MP Kumar spoke of the unimaginable loss Noah's mother Masi, her constituent, was now experiencing after dropping her son off at the nursery "like any other day".

"Tragically this would be the last time Masi would see her son alive," she told MPs.

"A staff member at Fairytale Nursery tried to get him to sleep. When Noah resisted she covered his face with a thick blanket and used her leg to pin him down.

"The pressure applied to his tiny body was so extreme it ruptured his colon.

"Mr Speaker, no parent should have to endure such unimaginable loss."

She asked Sir Keir to meet Noah's mother "to discuss how we can ensure tragedies like this never happen again".

During a two-day sentencing, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Noah was thrashing about when he was face down on a soft cushion inside a teepee in the nursery's baby room.

Cookson had wrapped him tightly in blankets and placed her leg across his lower back for seven minutes, the court heard.

Believing he had fallen asleep, the nursery worker then left him alone, but no checks were made on him for about two hours.

He was found unresponsive and pronounced dead in hospital an hour later.

The sleeping bag he was in was designed for outdoor camping and should never have been introduced at the nursery, the court heard, and did not comply with NHS sleep guidance.

In a statement read to the court, Cookson, 23, said "what happened will haunt me for the rest of my life".

Nursery owner Deborah Latewood, 55, was given a suspended sentence of six months in prison for a health and safety offence and the £240,000 was for corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence.

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