Mother denies culpable homicide in baby death linked to hairdryer heat

Courtney Gartshore denied culpable homicide at the High Court in Aberdeen over the death of her three-month-old daughter, Dahlia-Rose, after prosecutors said the infant was subjected to heat from a hairdryer in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in September 2023.

The Crown case is that Gartshore, 28, was in sole care of Dahlia-Rose on 30 September 2023 when the baby suffered what prosecutors described as “significant and sustained” heat to her head and body. The charge says the injuries were so severe that they caused her death. Jurors were also told that Dahlia-Rose may already have been dead before she was burned.

A separate allegation before the court accuses Gartshore of wilfully neglecting her daughter in the day before the baby died. Prosecutors also claim Gartshore had taken alcohol and the class B stimulant mephedrone while caring for the infant, an accusation that sharpens the legal question at the heart of the trial: whether the injuries arose from reckless conduct, neglect, or a combination of both.

Medical and forensic evidence has been central to that issue. On the fourth day of the trial, jurors heard evidence from a forensic biologist that Dahlia-Rose’s DNA was found on the hairdryer. BBC News later reported that the infant’s DNA was also found on the appliance, reinforcing the Crown’s case that the device had been in direct contact with the child. That evidence matters because prosecutors must prove not only contact, but the level of recklessness and the causal link between the alleged injury and the death.

Gartshore, who lives in Aberdeen, appeared before the High Court in Aberdeen as the case continued. The trial now turns on whether the jury accepts the Crown’s account that the baby was exposed to prolonged heat in circumstances that were culpable and reckless, or whether the defence can raise a reasonable doubt about how and when Dahlia-Rose died.