Mother who killed baby daughter with heat from hairdryer to appeal against conviction and sentence

A mother who killed her baby daughter with heat from a hairdryer plans to appeal against her conviction and sentence.

Courtney Gartshore, 28, subjected three-month-old Dahlia-Rose to "significant and sustained heat" on the head and body, fatally injuring her.

She was convicted of culpable homicide following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen in July and was sentenced to six years in jail at the High Court in Edinburgh earlier this month.

Court officials confirmed on Monday that an intimation to appeal against conviction and sentence had been lodged on behalf of Gartshore, starting the appeal process.

Detective Inspector James Callander previously said: "Children are defenceless and should be protected.

"The death of any child is particularly harrowing, but a child's death at the hands of a parent is incredibly disturbing."

The incident occurred at a property in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, on 30 September 2023.

Gartshore had earlier been drinking while she had been in sole charge of the infant.

Police Scotland said officers received a call from the Scottish Ambulance Service alerting them to the death.

An investigation was launched, with Gartshore subsequently arrested and charged in November 2023.

Sentencing Gartshore, Judge Simon Collins KC called it a "uniquely disturbing" case.

He said: "It is tragic as well as terrible.

"You will have to live the rest of your life with the knowledge that you were responsible for her death.

"This was a gross breach of the most basic duty as a parent."

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Although the judge acknowledged that Gartshore had not intended to harm or kill her baby, he said she was culpable in the "highest degree" of carelessness.

He added that it "should have been obvious" that Dahlia-Rose was in "severe distress and pain".

The Crown expert's position was that the likely cause of Dahlia-Rose's death was hyperthermia and heatstroke rather than burns.

Defence lawyer Murray Macara described it as a "truly tragic and distressing case".

He told the court he could not provide a reasonable or compelling explanation for why his client used the hairdryer but speculated that the baby was cold and that she may have attempted to "recklessly" use it as a source of heat.

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