Mother jailed after toddler son drowns in pond

She went outside soon after to find Joshua lying unconscious in the pond.

While police interrogation, she gave varying accounts of what had happened in the garden of her former residence.

Claire Barnett, 31, was on her phone checking Facebook when her son Joshua Barnett fell into a pond while playing in the garden at his home in March 2014.

Miss Barnett, who had four children, had been spoken to by social services in the months before for neglecting her children in the street.

“It may have been as short as 20 seconds”, he said.

“There was in fact indication the appellant was on a portable receiver inside of the recline on Facebook in the event that Joshua got an invitation to the pond”.

The Yorkshire Post reports Barnett’s family allegedly warned her about the dangers of having an uncovered pond in her yard with such a young child, but Barnett never covered it.

Passing sentence, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said Barnett’s “lamentably appalling parenting led to fatal consequences”.

“Your son died due to your neglectful conduct”.

Claire Barnett was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to child cruelty in connection with the death of her son Joshua in 2014, which the judge said was caused by “consistently bad parenting”.

Her lawyer, Timothy Roberts, claimed that she was ready to take the dog for a walk when her son drowned, but she was distracted by a Facebook comment.

“If you should have any further children, they will nearly certainly be removed from you”. Now, as the story of how Joshua Barnett drowned is spreading the same social media platform is being turned on Claire and persons are expressing their anger at the toddler’s neglect and belief that jail for Barnett is justice.